Secrets of Past
by Deepbluejewel
Summary: SUMMARY CHANGED! Unstable peace. Vampire clans, which hate each other guts. Monster hunters, seeking revenge. Dark and disgusting pages of history, neverending feuds. Tsukune - teenager, who believe in coexistence. Moka - vampire girl, who is too proud to accept her true feelings. Parents, who deliberately hide the truth. The great game begins as the dark shadow engulfs the world.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: Unstable peace. Vampire clans, which hate each other guts. Monster hunters, seeking revenge. Dark and disgusting pages of history, neverending feuds... Tsukune - teenager, who believe in coexistence. Moka - vampire girl, who is too proud to accept her true feelings... Parents, who deliberately hide the truth. Unpleasant relatives... The great game begins as the dark shadow of past slowly engulfs the world. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. All characters belonged to Ikeda Akihisa **

Prologue.

It was already dark enough in the street so a middle-aged woman hurried to get home. She was visiting her old friend's house and spent there more time than she expected. So now Aono Kasumi had to reach her house. Even if her only son attended high school she still had a husband who might already return.

'Poor Koji must be really hungry and tired,' thought Kasumi. 'And I haven't left even a note where I went. He must be really worried'.

At last she reached her house. To her utter surprise the lights were off. The front door was also locked. Kasumi looked at her watch. Strange. Her husband usually was at home by that hour. Had something happened?

Kasumi found the key and opened the door. The first thing she noted was her husband's pair of shoes. So Koji was really at home. But why he hadn't turned on the light and had locked the door still remained mystery to his wife.

Kasumi entered the living-room turning on the light. Koji was there sitting on the sofa and staring blankly on the wall. His wife followed his stare but saw nothing.

"Dear, what's happened?" she asked him with alarm. He never answered. Instead he murmured

"I wonder, what force made you marry me?"

"What?" Kasumi could not believe her ears. Did he really say that?

"I'm total loser, a poor excuse of man," continued Koji. "I failed as husband, as son, as father and as friend. Because of me everybody suffers and I still can do nothing always looking for some poor excuses".

Kasumi suddenly noticed an empty bottle on the floor. Next moment she smelled faint scent of alcohol in the air. Her husband was definitely drunk. His strange behavior now had a reason.

But why was Koji drunk at first place? Kasumi was sure he wasn't such a guy. At least, wasn't after their marriage. More importantly the woman couldn't understand, why her husband was so depressed. It was so unlike him. He had incredibly easy-going, light, often careless personality. It was extremely difficult to upset Koji. For example, when he suddenly lost work some years ago he simply went to find another. It was only one time, when Kasumi saw her husband depressed like now but it was so many years ago that she nearly forgot about it.

The woman sat down near Koji and embraced him, trying to comfort.

"I've never thought you're a loser," she said calmly. "Do you remember our first meeting?"

He stayed silent, so she continued:

"It was my first year in high school. We had a festival then. You had already graduated some years before but still came to visit your alma mater. I was molested by some thugs and nobody tried to help me. Everybody simply looked away. You were only one to interfere and protect me".

"And then I was beaten to pulp," said Koji grimly. "After all I couldn't be of real help".

"It didn't matter for me that day," Kasumi gave him a smile. "Maybe other thought you was some weak idiot but I saw the greatest person in all universe who would never leave anyone in trouble alone. I had never met a man as kind as you, a man who would help a girl without any dirty thoughts. And you raised Tsukune to be such a person. How can you ever think about being bad father and husband after that?"

The woman was sure she convinced her husband to cheer up but instead he covered his face with his hands. She heard his nearly inaudible muttering.

"…re"

"What have you said?" asked Kasumi with unconscious alarm.

Koji raised his head still avoiding her eyes and repeated louder:

"_**He**_ was here".

The woman suddenly paled. Now she understood everything. It was no joke. There was only one person whose name her husband avoided, no, even hated to mention. And that person visited their house?

Kasumi grabbed Koji's shoulders and began to shake him violently without realization of her own actions.

"What did _**he **_want from you?" she nearly screamed. "What did you talk about?"

"_**He**_ asked me how I felt about my current life," the man frowned. "If I liked my job or our house. And then _**he**_ was curious about you and Tsukune," Koji kicked the empty bottle, rose and walked to the window.

"But I thought _**he**_ left us in peace many years ago," now Kasumi was really scared.

"It's impossible," her husband looked through the window. "Damn! I've always known _**he**_ would never let me go. Neither he, nor fate".

He crossed the room and added:

"I must leave. Immediately".

"Were will you go?" his wife nearly panicked and grabbed his arm. "It's madness! It's too late besides you're drunk! It'd be better if you go tomorrow. Now it`s impossible for you to consider situation with a reason!" she was really hoping her husband would regain his sanity tomorrow.

"Kasumi, my love, now I'm more sane than ever," he looked into her eyes with great sadness as if he could read her thoughts. "But I must go there".

"No!" she held on his arm more tightly. "You're not obligated to go there. _**That person **_considers the entire world his chessboard. But you're not his pawn, you have your own will!"

"Dear, it is my own decision to come there. I'm really a weakling but I'm definitely nobody's pawn. But you know it yourself: I'm also not a man to endanger somebody, especially my own family only for my own safety. I'd already made my mind when you came. Your presence only gave me courage. It is a great shame you've seen my miserable condition. I wish you've never know about that visit…"

Suddenly Koji hugged his wife with great passion giving her parting kiss. Kasumi couldn't hold her tears as he left the room. For a moment her husband stopped in the doorway reflecting about something and then told the woman firmly:

"If I don't return you'd better tell Tsukune that I run away with a whore. He'd better hate his father for being perverted bastard than look for the truth or even seek revenge".

_**So that was prologue. Next chapter will be about students of Youkai Gakuen**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Wow, I got some reviews, favs and follows! Thank you very much, now I know that somebody is reading my story. It is my first attempt in fanfiction, besides, English isn`t my native language so forgive me my mistakes.**_

_**About story: It will have two lines – one about vampire society (linked with Moka), another – about Aono Koji`s secrets (linked with Tsukune). I really want to write Koji`s backstory. I think he got too little spotlight (seriously, in manga he appeared only twice!) and even fanfiction gives more attention to Kasumi. Another thing I want describe is Akasha`s background (we still don`t know about her live before battle with Alucard). **_

Chapter 1: Youkai Gakuen special – Part 1

A dim light was falling from somewhere above barely illuminating gloomy room. It was incredibly dusty there with all those spiders` webs and fug. That place surely was never even considered to be cleaned.

Kurumu sneezed and yelled angrily:

"What the hell? I can`t bare this anymore! How have we even got in this frigging prison?"

"It`s not a prison" smiled Tsukune. "Prisons are a lot damper"

But deep inside he agreed with Kurumu`s analogy. That room wasn`t comfortable and pleasant place and Tsukune even suspected that Newspapers Club`s members were the first people to step here in many years.

It began some days before when Gin ran into the Newspapers Club`s room with really desperate face. The girls even stopped one of their daily fights and looked at him with great confusion.

"We are doomed!" cried Gin looking at the ceiling. Tsukune looked there too but saw nothing.

"What`s happened?" asked Moka with worry. "Somebody`s attack? Or did one decide to close our school?"

"Worse" answered Gin grimly.

"I think he is overcolouring the situation" sniffed Kurumu. "Have you lost your camera, pervert?"

Werewolf glared at succubus and roared:

"We have no time for poor jokes! Our club can be disbanded!"

"But we`ve done nothing wrong" said Tsukune.

"You`re too naïve" Gin snorted. "We`d never done anything wrong but were accused twice only last year! I don`t think you`ve already forgotten those situations with Kuyo and that graffiti guy from Antithesis… After all you suffered the most because of that accidents"

"I believed Kuyo left the school, as well as that freak Hokuto" Yukari chopped in. "I thought our club was left in peace"

"Better Kuyo than that flat hellcat!" yelled Morioka. "She hate our club more than any other person in all universe!"

"What hellcat?" Moka suddenly understand. "Wait, do you mean Yamamoto-sempai from the Student Council?"

Gin nodded. Really there was a person who surely was dreaming about Newspapers Club`s destruction – Yamamoto Aika, third year student. She couldn`t stand Moka, Kurumu and Mizore, and despised Gin. Other members, however, avoided her hatred. Aika was famous of being only female in school NEVER molested or peeped by Morioka Ginei. Even if the werewolf was interested in every person wearing skirt he never was interested in that girl. Maybe it was the reason of her rage towards him.

Aika definitely wasn`t pretty and never hide her envy for beauties whom she tried to humiliate when she had opportunity.

"So she decided to disband us?" Mizore took out her loly-pop. "That Yamamoto had no rights. She is not Headmaster neither she has approval of Student Council. So calm down".

"She _had _that damned approval" snapped Gin. "Our last issues of newspaper suck, or you disagree with me? They were terribly boring, without any sensation. And one of issues was released unedited because of deadline! Not to mention that it was awful idea to publish love potion recipe last time, Yukari!"

"We had too much empty space!" sassed the young witch.

"You could at least check it up beforehand! And now four students are in hospital with intoxication because of that love potion! I`m not surprised that all Student Council began to doubt our competence" Gin finally sat down and said no more. Everybody stayed silent for some time. Then Tsukune asked:

"Can we do something to improve our situation? I can`t believe they haven`t given us last chance! The current Student Council isn`t unfair as I know"

"They told me we had to release special issue about Youkai Gakuen`s anniversary and it had to be ideal" murmured werewolf. "It`s ridiculous – all celebration are planned in fall, and we must publish special issue till the end of month. We have only three weeks and colossal work! That`s why I`ve said we`re doomed"

"Gin, you`re moron!" yelled Kurumu. "Instead of explaining everything from the beginning you only complained! We must start working immediately! Or you really want our club to be closed?"

That day had no real results. And two following too. Whenever Newspaper Club began its work it was interrupted. Gin was the first runaway. He didn`t even tried to help. Then there was Kokoa with her obsession with Inner Moka and never-ending challenges. Not to mention Chinese mafia boy Fang-Fang with his undead sister and crazy summoning who couldn`t understand at all that Tsukune had no time.

So when Ruby came one day to help Newspaper Club (she had much work in the office lately and she barely managed to escape) she saw only Kurumu and Yukari quarreling about breast-sizes. Moka had run away chased by her little sister, Tsukune went to get some more paper and was kidnapped by Ling-Ling, Mizore secretly followed her love and at the moment was fighting with kidnappers. And Kurumu was simply unable to work with Yukari alone.

It took some time to gather everybody. Sometimes Ruby could really prove that she was adult. She lectured everybody strictly and then gave her friends nice advice to look for material in the school archive.

No need to tell that everybody`s hopes were raised. They didn`t even know what they were supposed to tell. They had no information about school history or most famous school leavers. But now they at least had a prompt where they could get such information.

School archive disappoints the members greatly. First, it was extremely dusty place without much light. Second, the papers there wasn`t sorted at all. It seemed that they were simply stowed there without distinction and nobody had ever tried to put them in some system. At last, there were so much trash like old student`s works and test results as if Headmaster decided never throw away any paper. But Newspaper Club had no choice so they decided to look for something interesting.

"Two hundred years" complained Kurumu throwing away a fifty-years- old schedule. "Two hundred years of our school`s existence – and Headmaster stored all that!"

"Sometimes you can find interesting things" disagreed Moka. "I`ve never thought that the uniform was changed eleven times".

"And I`ve found report about first school festival ninety-four years ago" added Yukari.

"There are many photos here too" Mizore suddenly appeared behind the shelves. "And where is Tsukune?"

Tsukune went to the farthest shelves. He saw some folders which picked his interest on the upper shelf. The boy tried to reach them but lost balanced and fell followed by the flow of papers.

"Ow" Tsukune sat up rubbing his head hit by one especially heavy folder. He tried to gather all the papers when suddenly noticed thick copybook. _**"Some notes on monster and human society and their coexistence" **_was written on the cover. _**"By Y. K."**_ was added below. The name was written on Japanese, but initials were Latin letters with Y looked nearly like V.

Tsukune opened first page and saw kind of a table of contests. _**Monsters in human society. Problems of coexistence. Myths and reality. Effects of discrimination among monster races. **_There was even more titles but Tsukune decided to turn over some pages. The copybook seemed to be someone research about humans and monsters. The author probably was a student here and not very excellent. Even Tsukune noticed several mistakes in kanji. But content seemed to be extremely reliable so that Tsukune never truly interested in monster world decided to take those notes with him and read later.

While human boy had found the copybook Moka suddenly stumbled across one curious photo. The back side of it said _**Newspaper Club**_ and there was a date nearly 25 years ago. There were five people on the photo, two girls and three boys. One of girls who had cat ears and tail was surely their homeroom teacher, Nekonome Shizuka. She hadn`t changed much over the years. Moka hadn`t recognized neither second girl – gorgeous blue-eyed blonde, nor one of the guys who was so tall that others barely reached his waist. But vampire had some doubts regarding two others who gave her some uneasiness.

The boy in the middle had average height and plain appearance. His dark hair was tousled and he wore wide nearly idiotic smile. Moka could swear she had met this guy somewhere before but her memory gave her neither his name, nor circumstances of their meeting. Another boy had black shoulder-length hair held in ponytail, handsome face and lonely brown eyes. He slightly resembled somebody, but Moka couldn`t remember who. Besides she noticed a rosary on the boys chest. It didn`t looked like a limiter to vampire power, more likely it was religious attribute – plain wooden cross on the plain chain. It was strange – Moka was pretty sure that monsters disliked such things and some races even couldn`t stand them.

When Newspaper Club`s members had left school archive, they had much decent material. Kurumu decided to write a short school chronicle about major events, Yukari was going to write an article about school uniforms in different years, Tsukune selected short information about alumni and Mizore was in charge of photos. Moka said that she would describe history of some clubs without any explanation to her friends.

Later that day pink-haired vampire went to Nekonome-sensei followed by Kokoa who for some unbelievable reason didn`t try to challenge her sister. The cat-woman was surprised at first but after listening to Moka`s request agreed to tell something about Newspaper Club of her school years.

"I was one of the first members, nya~" the teacher said pridefully. "We had no newspaper for a long time. But then twenty-five years ago two students established our club. Those two" she pointed to average guy and boy with rosary in the photo. "They were brothers… Or maybe cousins… I really don`t know… It doesn`t matter anyhow, does it?"

Moka sighed. Sometimes Nekonome-sensei was so oblivious and absent-minded.

"Then others joined" continued cat-woman. "Everybody was so kind and often treated me with fish"

Kokoa nearly facepalmed but said nothing.

"And what was their names?" asked Moka before her teacher changed the theme to fish.

"That`s Kurata Kei, our photographer" the teacher pointed to tall person. "Blonde girl is Aizawa Rinko, she became famous journalist after graduation. The fellow with ponytail is Yagami Kagero, and his older brother, president of our club" she suddenly stopped and then add "He always treated me with fish. Such a kind person".

"And what was his name?"

"It was common name… Emm… Yamato? No, Tarou? Maybe Jirou?" Nekonome-sensei looked confused. "Anyway, I called him President Yagami"

Moka felt sorry about that kind person Yagami whose name was completely forgotten. She was sure he was very quiet and well-bred. But somehow pink-haired vampire was relieved: she knew no one with surname Yagami. It must have been her imagination…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2: Youkai Gakuen special – Part 2

…_Sometimes I think the human history is ridiculous. It often preserved some unnecessary facts and in the same time stubbornly omitted any events involving monsters. Well, maybe the only exceptions are witch-hunts. Still now most of humans don`t believe in monsters. We became only legends and myths as if we`ve never existed._

_Our authorities are talking about coexistence lately. Youkai are taught to leave among humans in human disguise. Bullshit! Such hypocrisy will never be considered as true coexistence. Human race still fears and hates monsters considering us blood-thirsty violent beasts. But youkai are not much better with their utter disgust and disdain towards humans. For most of us they`re only food, nothing different from livestock. _

_Some facts: among nearly two billions youkai in our world only few millions really are part of human society: live in human settlements, have normal job and official documents. Most of us prefer to stay hidden: some because of our law not to interfere in human live, some because of traditions of their race and some – because they can`t stand living among such lowly creatures._

_In ancient times youkai was much stronger than humans. We could simply wipe them from the face of Earth. But now the situation is completely different with all their rapid progress. I don`t dare to say they are stronger than us now but we`re definitely equal now. Or equal in theory. Human race have no unity, people all over the world are separated by borders of their countries, their religions and nationalities. It`s irony but neither have monsters. We have no countries or different religions but we have many races each with their unique traditions, outlook and style of live. Yeah, we have Great Monster Council, which gathered representatives from most races and established common law for every member of our society. But this so-called government have never had real power. All without exceptions races prefer to follow their own rules. As yuki-onna race`s tradition is obligatory, often forced marriages in early age, they totally ignore The Declaration of Monster Rights. Or vampires who`ve never ceased to drink blood directly from human beings even if it`s illegal. And it has the reason. Every race has its own government, law, courts and punishment system, which are absolute. They see no reason to unite forces. The only one example of true partnership in our history is Three Hades Lords. Sadly nobody really wishes to follow their example…_

Tsukune stopped reading and looked at the clock. It was already past midnight. The boy wondered how after all the lessons, crazy work on special issue and homework, he had still some vigor not to fall asleep immediately and moreover – read that strange notes he had found in archive.

Tsukune looked at Holy lock. Was the reason in Moka`s blood? The human boy sighed. Even if he`d never admitted it aloud and continued to say he was a human, deep inside he had serious doubts about what he really was. After that day when Tsukune felt thirst for Moka`s blood at first time he understood that he was driving more and more from being human. That blood thirst never went away so the boy had to learn to live with it and to control it. He was so successful that no one (except Mikogami) never even suspected him on having such thoughts. Then there was that power from vampire blood, which Inner Moka trained him to use. And at last Holy Lock – cruel reminder of fact that without that device Tsukune would be only mindless ghoul. Moreover, that seal was too fragile. How many cracks did it already have? Eventually Holy Lock was fated to break completely. Tsukune didn`t even want to imagine what would happen then.

And the most horrible thing was that his worries of becoming something inhuman seemed to diminish as the time passed. The boy still remembered his shock last year when he had learned the truth about Kuyo`s defeat. He was so afraid to lose his humanity and became a monster. Then Tsukune realized that he needs a power to defend Moka and his friends. And after that there were all those complications with him becoming ghoul… But now everything seemed so distant and unimportant as if it didn`t concern him anymore.

Maybe it was the main reason that the boy was interested in monster traditions and society lately. And now he stumbled across the notes of some random monster. That mysterious Y. K. had incredible interesting thoughts and Tsukune couldn`t help agreeing with him. The human boy had similar thoughts some days ago and now it looked like somebody wrote them down. The only difference was that unknown author knew much more about youkai than Tsukune.

"What`s happened?" asked Moka next morning. "You look so pale. You`ve already given me permission to drink your blood but are you sure? Maybe you`re sick?"

"Not at all, Moka-san" Tsukune smiled weakly. "I think yesterday I simply overrated my own capabilities. Now I`ve realized that I must sleep in the night and…"

He was interrupted by happy shout "Tsukune!" and next moment was suffocated by someone`s breast. Of course it was Kurumu as usual. And then as usual she was hit by Mizore`s ice kunai. And of course Yukari with her yellow basins participated in cat-fight too. It was so usual beginning of the day. Who would know that several weeks later those peaceful days would look like a distant dream? Now everybody was oblivious about dark shadow, which was slowly engulfing all monster society…

After the lessons all members of Newspapers Club gathered in the club room to continue their work on special issue. Well, all except Gin who was missing for some days. Kurumu was extremely enraged by that fact:

"That lecherous bastard has no responsibility at all! Why is such a person president of our club? He`s never of any real help and now he`s abandoned us when Newspaper Club is in danger!"

"Wow, Kurumu, calm down" said Tsukune in effort to lighten the mood. "Gin-sempai is not as bad as you think. He worries about us greatly. Don`t you remember how he tried to protect us during encounter with Kuyo? So I believe sempai has his own reasons of his absence".

"Oh, really?" asked succubus angrily. "By the God`s sake, you believe in somebody who totally doesn`t deserve your respect! And moreover it happened before…"

"Kurumu" Moka tried to stop her friend before she said too much but it was late as Kurumu continued:

"Tsukune, how long will you try to justify everybody`s actions? You even trusted that bastard Hokuto! Really, how can you be so naïve? Or maybe he had his reasons too?"

"Boobs monster, stop it immediately" now Mizore decided to interfere but she wasn`t even heard.

"I wonder why you haven`t you still find some excuses for Kuyo and Mido? You know, they also had their motives!" Kurumu`s intonation became intensely sarcastic. Without doubts she intended to add more but was interrupted with yellow basin hitting her head.

"What was that, flat-chest?" barked succubus.

Yukari snapped back at her: "And what right do you have to yell at Tsukune for nothing?"

"You`ve said too much" agreed Moka looking at human teenager with great concern. He avoided her intent gaze and forced a smile:

"Kurumu`s right at some point. Maybe I`m really too soft"

"Tsukune, please, forgive me" blue-haired girl tried to apologize feeling ashamed. "I`ve never meant to insult you. I got too far… You know it must be because of my emotional nature".

"Kurumu, I`m not mad at you. I know you very well to understand you meant me no harm. It`s my fault that everyone of you have to worry. But I can`t help trying to understand others" Tsukune turned away. "My dad always said that if people could understand each other it would be much less violence and sorrow in our world. That was his great belief and I was raised to believe this as well".

There was instant, total silence. Kurumu could clearly sense deathly glares of Moka, Mizore and Yukari. She felt more ashamed and guilty. Of course! Hokuto had already become a taboo in their bunch and girls tried their best to omit his name. They knew Tsukune would never forget about fate of another human student of Youkai Gakuen and would always regret that he couldn`t do a thing for him. And now Kurumu had blurted it out.

The succubus gazed sadly at her Destined one. She loved that human boy so much yet managed to hurt him…

"Are everybody ready?" asked Ruby looking at the Newspaper club`s members with the wide smile. Everybody was in their casual clothes instead of uniform. Ruby had counted five persons: Moka and Kurumu were holding on Tsukune`s arms while Yukari tried to hug him. Mizore still hadn`t participated in that action for some reason hiding behind the tree and ready to froze her rivals at any moment.

The Newspaper club was going at a field trip to get more information for special issue. It had been decided to interview some of the former students of Youkai Gakuen who had successfully blended in human society. Ruby got the permission from Headmaster to visit human world. On other hand, Nekonome-sensei was too busy to accompany her club. Moka invited Kokoa to go with them but her little sister showed no interest. And Gin was still nowhere to find as if he had vanished…

The field trip was surprisingly entertaining. All those alumni were interesting persons. There was a werewolf who married with human female, an incubus who made brilliant carrier as an actor, a witch famous as a great doctor, a mermaid working as a swimming instructor and some more. Everybody were extremely kind and tried to help Newspaper club. Thus, the company had finished their job quicker than was expected.

"We have pretty much time left," said Ruby getting on the bus. "We can go somewhere else before returning. Any ideas?"

"What about visiting Tsukune`s house?" suggested Moka. She was sure that her first friend missed his family. Everybody agreed pink-haired vampire`s idea.

It didn`t take much time to convince Bus Driver to take everybody to Tsukune`s hometown.

"Are you sure that everything will be OK?" asked Ruby with doubt. "Last time these four caused quite a ruckus. Your mother was horrified".

"I`d explained her everything so there won`t be any misunderstanding this time" Tsukune shook his head. "Mom never got a chance to take a closer look at my friends. Besides my Dad wasn`t at home that time and met with them only briefly".

"I`d like to meet Tsukune`s dad" exclaimed Kurumu. "I`m sure he`s a great person like his son, my Destined one".

"I`m looking forward for meeting with my future father-in-law too" drawled Mizore with a dreamy smile.

'_I`m really curious about Aono-san' _thought Moka.

'_**Me too'**_ replied suddenly Inner Moka from the rosary. Pink-haired girl nearly fell from her seat:

'_Ura-chan, you`ve scared me!'_

'_**It`s not my fault that you`re scaredy-cat'**_ teased the silver-haired beauty.

'_But you`ve stayed silent for several days' _ defended the girl. '_I was worried and you didn`t even react on my calls'._

'_**Your research was too boring'**_ yawned Ura.

'_But what did you mean?' _asked Outer Moka in her mind hoping that nobody noticed her inner conversation. '_Why do you want to meet Tsukune`s dad?'___

Inner Moka smirked:_** 'Haven`t you ever been interested in somebody suspicious?'**_

'_What do you mean by suspicious?'_

'_**Omote, are you dumb? Tsukune had told you how he had ended in the monster school' **_answered silver-haired vampire with irritation. _**'Have you ever thought what kind of parent would send his only child to the school which he knows nothing about? I assume that Tsukune`s father is either idiot or he is hiding something'.**_

'_Do you really think so, Ura-chan?'_

'_**Don`t tell me you`ve believed that fishy story about drunken priest and dropped leaflet. It`s not something that can happen every day' **_

'_Ura-chan, I think you`ve become paranoid' _said Omote in her mind. The rosary stayed silent so pink-haired girl joined the conversation with her friends who were discussing Tsukune`s family.

"By the way, how about Kyoko?" asked Kurumu. "She knows about true nature of Youkai Gakuen".

"She`ll never tell my parents about monsters" said Tsukune. "Kyo-chan was really terrified when she visited our academy but she trusts me and that`s why she lets me stay in school".

"Kyoko is really like elder sister to you" Ruby smiled.

"Besides, she resembles your mother greatly" added Yukari.

Kurumu laughed: "Don`t be stupid, Yukari! Kyoko`s last name is Aono. She is definitely the relative from father`s side".

"Actually, you`re wrong, Kurumu" Tsukune rubbed his neck. "Kyoko`s dad and my mom are siblings. And my father took my mother`s last name. I have no relatives from father`s side at all".

'_**That`s suspicious' **_insisted Inner Moka. _**'As if that person cut all ties with his past'.**_

'_Ura-chan, I`ll say this again: don`t overdramatize all situation' _thought Omote angrily. _'It happens sometimes that the husband takes his wife`s name, especially in rich or famous families'._

'_**Tsukune`s family seems pretty average to me' **_growled Ura. _**'But my reasonable words don`t reach you at all. You`re more naïve than Tsukune!'**_

The bus at last reached its destination. Tsukune got off followed by girls and then knocked at the front door. It was opened nearly immediately. Kasumi who appeared on the doorway looked haggard and exhausted, her face were emotionless. But as soon as she saw her son something very close to fear appeared in her eyes. It was as if poor woman saw a ghost.

"Tsukune?" asked mother in tremulous voice. She`d never expected her son to visit their house so soon. Kasumi hadn`t still gotten over Koji`s leaving. Only three days passed. How could she explain her husband's absence to Tsukune? Tell him the truth? She wasn`t sure it wouldn`t endanger her only child. Follow Koji`s words? Or maybe think up other plausible lie?

"Mom, what`s happened?" Tsukune looked at the woman with great worry.

She didn`t answer, only stepped aside to let the guests step inside. Her son repeated his question suddenly feeling uneasy and alarmed:

"What`s happened? It`s definitely something wrong with you? And where`s Dad? He must be at home today".

Kasumi clenched her hands trying to muster the courage and said quietly:

"He left our family".

"What?" for a moment Tsukune even thought he had misheard. "It`s a joke, isn`t it?"

"Do you think one can joke with something like that?!" suddenly yelled Kasumi to cover her poor lies. "Your father had left! Run away with some whore! And… And…" she couldn`t finish: her legs gave way under her and she burst into uncontrollable tears. It was too much for her.

"Mom, I didn`t mean that" Tsukune knelt beside his mother hugging her and trying to comfort. Ruby silently took Yukari by her shoulders and went outside followed by other girls. Everyone understood that their presence was unnecessary there. After all they could do nothing.

"Mom fell asleep. She was too exhausted" frowned Tsukune. "Can you explain me, Kyo-chan, what`d happened here while I was at school?"

The all Newspaper club`s members were sitting in the living-room of Aono`s residence. Kyoko, who had came immediately after her cousin`s call, answered:

"I don`t know much either but it seems that your parents had a great fight some days ago. Aunt never explained us much. It seems that Uncle met another woman and left with her. From that day Kasumi-obaasan is depressed. And my Dad swore to murder the man who brought so much misery to his little sister".

Tsukune buried his face in his hands:

"I still can`t believe this. It is so unlike Dad. I was sure he loved Mom greatly. And now to learn that he cheated on her… It`s like a bad dream. I wish I can wake up…"

**Author`s note: It was really difficult chapter to write. Anyway, next one will involve some characters and facts from later part of manga so this story may contain some spoilers. About timeline of this story: it is happening before chapter 26 of second season so meeting with Tohou Fuhai still hasn`t happened and Moka still doesn`t know about consequences of prolonged removal of her seal.**

**I want really thank all that people who have read, reviewed, followed and favorite this story. Till the next time! **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3: Last moments until collapse

The little café on the outskirts of the town wasn`t very popular and had very few visitors every day. It was infamous for its terrible coffee and stale cakes. But for two middle-aged men it was a perfect place: after all they came there not for a cup of coffee.

"What do you want?" asked middle-aged waitress in tempting, seductive voice. One might think she was pretty in her young age but now the waitress definitely tried to hide her worn appearance with make-up.

"A cup of tea" grimaced a dark-haired man. He didn`t look very well: his shirt was wrinkled and his face was tired. Aono Koji surely wasn`t in his best shape.

"Cappuccino, please" Koji`s companion smiled charmingly. He was complete opposite of Aono – blonde hair combed with neatness, elegant and expensive clothes and confident attitude. The waitress`s heart melted as she whispered:

"As you wish…" and she withdrew.

"Man, that kind of women is too predictable" yawned blonde man. "As soon as they see an outstanding person they begin to seduce him even if they`re ugly like a hell".

Koji looked at him grimly:

"We`ve come here not to discuss women, Hajime".

"Don`t be so mad, Koji" Hajime laughed. "I only tried to begin conversation. For somebody who vanished nearly eighteen years ago to call me… Of course, I was surprised that you were asking me for meeting. And today… Well, I was shocked when I saw you. I even didn`t recognize you at first! Who would think that the genius Koji would someday turn into average salary man? Man, I fail to understand you! You abandoned everything you had for some stupid reason. You could have everything – money, power, influence, the love of most beautiful women – and yet you left to live plain live with boring job and average family! Well, I somehow can understand your wish of having own family but to give up such a perfect live… It`s too much, you know?"

Hajime`s voice was extremely friendly and cheerful, but Koji knew him too well to fall for it. That blonde man was incredibly good actor who had deceived so many people. He was a fake, a rotten hypocrite without any shame. Now Hajime was playing a role of old friend with some success. Only his cold grey eyes betrayed him showing deep hatred for his companion. Koji saw it clearly. It was always like that: arrogant and selfish Hajime couldn`t stand anybody better then himself but always concealed that fact with sweet hypocritical smile. Now he got a great chance to humiliate his old rival.

"It doesn`t matter at all" said Koji with some disgust – he never liked Hajime too. "You`ve already known why I was looking for meeting with you".

"Yeah, it`s because you`re scared to death" Hajime stopped pretending and smirked arrogantly. "You`re afraid to meet your master and…"

"Nonsense!" Koji suddenly lost his cool striking his hand fiercely on the table. "He`s never been my master! And will never be! The only master I had died many years ago!"

"What a temper!" chuckled blonde man mockingly. "But I`m pretty surprised that you called your best friend your master as he would never approve it. Still, you were raised well to know your own position. You knew that friendship between master and servant is something impossible. Now I recognize old Koji!"

The dark-haired man stayed silent then said grimly:

"I`ve decided to return. But if any of you dare to lay your filthy hands on my family you`ll regret that you`ve born".

"So it`s true that your wife knows only some facts about your past and your son is still oblivious" Hajime smirked. Koji frowned at his words: his old acquaintance accidently blurted that his family was observed. So Aono really hadn`t any other choice than to leave.

"They have nothing to do with that" he grimaced.

"I doubt it" smiled Hajime. "Especially about your son. Don`t you want a successor?" he wanted to add something but noticed Koji`s furious face and decided to change the theme: "Anyway, about your request… You see, you can`t return like this…"

"I need to get some job done, I suppose?" hissed Koji through his teeth.

Hajime threw him a folder instead of answer. His companion took out some pictures and examined them thoroughly. Then he muttered:

"A monstrel, a troll, a mermaid and two vampires? It`s not as easy, especially vampires. I haven`t done this job for ages…"

"Don`t even try to underrate your own abilities" growled Hajime. "Or you assumed that our clan would leave you in peace if you lost them? By the way it`s ridiculously easy job. Even vampires are only low-rank scum which has nothing to do with really powerful high-ranked nobility. So I advice you not to try deceive us otherwise I personally force your son to make this job instead of you!"

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Newspaper Club tried their best to complete their important task but they work didn`t have any joy at all now. At least, before they all were really interested in making that special issue despite of colossal efforts. And now everything somehow lost its importance.

After Tsukune learned about his father's leaving the mood in their company changed drastically. The girls were afraid that he would be depressed but it seemed they were wrong. Instead their friend got angry. He didn`t believe in his mother`s story at all and wanted to find the truth himself. The teenager even told that to Kyoko that day but she hadn`t agreed with him.

"And where will you go? You haven`t even slightest clue! Besides, how much time will you spend in your search? Or you decided to drop out of school after all that arguments to stay in that hellish place? Do you really want to throw away your own life for your father who maybe doesn`t deserve your trust at all? I beg you to stay away from this. If it's stupid misunderstanding or something like that your father will simply return home. And if not… Let it be".

Tsukune stopped his argument with cousin that time but all girls clearly understood that he hadn`t abandon his idea.

Kurumu sighed looking with a deep sorrow at Tsukune. He gaze was distant as if he wasn`t in room at all. When somebody asked human teenager about something he didn`t reacted immediately so girls decided leave him alone. Mizore was sitting between Yukari and Kurumu. Any other day those three would surely end up fighting because of their love interest but now they were sharing each other feeling of worry and concern. Neither of them even hadn`t complain about Moka sitting beside Tsukune. The girls were secretly hoping that their cheerful pink-haired friend somehow would manage to revive his spirit to some extent.

But Moka herself didn`t even know what to say to her first friend. She could understand his feelings: after all her mother had left without any explanations too. On other hand vampire girl seriously doubted whether she had a right to compare those two situations. After all nobody had accused Akasha of something indecent. Moka was sure that she would be surely broken if somebody tried to shake her truth in mother. She even envied Tsukune`s will. How could he decide to find a truth instead of falling into despair? Despite of his shock Tsukune quickly overcome his depression and now was definitely thinking about possible ways to solve entire situation. The pink-haired vampire would never think her first friend was such a person.

Suddenly the door burst open revealing Gin with the widest and silliest smile on his face.

"How are you guys? Have you missed me?" he exclaimed. Everybody raised their heads and then silently returned to work.

Gin`s smile vanished: "Come on, guys! What`s happened with the mood here?"

"Maybe you will tell us where you were all this time, won`t you?" asked Kurumu with no real interest. Some days ago she was going to beat the perverted sempai to pulp when he returned. But now succubus had no time to be mad at Gin.

"What does it mean?" the werewolf was greatly surprised. "I asked Headmaster for the permission to visit Sun. Haven`t anybody told you that? Anyway, Sun helped me greatly with some material. She had to write many articles about alumni while studying here…"

"Stop!" cried Yukari forgetting about previous grimly mood. "Don`t tell me that you`re really working at special issue all this time!"

Gin nodded proudly. Now everybody looked at him with shock. Then Mizore stated solemnly:

"If even that lazy pervert is working than apocalypse is surely drawing near. We`re doomed".

Suddenly everybody burst out laughing for a moment forgetting about all worries and problems. Gin-sempai without any intention managed to change the atmosphere completely…

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A tan beautiful woman with short blonde hair decorated with a rosary was sitting in the luxurious arm-chair waiting for the meeting. Shuzen Gyokuro, the Head of mighty Shuzen vampire clan, couldn`t hide her confident triumphant smile. At last all her efforts would be paid off. Otherwise, why should the great Vampire Council send her a private letter? From today Shuzen clan would have as much authority as Gyokuro desired.

The female vampire glanced at the wall studying the world map hanging there. It was hand-made and decorated with jewels. All continents were divided into five parts, colored in black, silver, deep blue, red and purple. Gyokuro found the Japan easily and for some time stared on the border between red and purple there.

'_It`s my win, Akasha. You can`t do anything now. Besides, Bloodriver clan never has had real authority here, in Japan' _she thought with nearly insane look. _'Today, I`ll take your place in the Council'._

Gyokuro smirked. It was a perfect opportunity. The Vampire Council consisted of the heads of five most powerful and influential vampire clans. But now two seats were empty which caused some misbalance in vampire society. Moreover, Shuzen clan gained much more influence lately.

A young servant approached the vampire female:

"Gyokuro-sama, the Council is waiting for you".

The blonde woman followed the servant and entered grandiose hall lighten by torches and decorated with crimson hangings and drapes. There was a huge round table in the middle and five chairs.

Gyokuro bowed greeting the Council members and then stayed waiting for their response. She examined them attentively. The man opposite her was a handsome raven-haired vampire with black rosary decorated by amethysts on his chest. His black eyes reminded Gyokuro of abyss as they were cold and merciless. His name was Souma and he was considered as one of most dangerous youkai in the world because of his infinite hatred and disgust of humankind. Besides, his beliefs were completely opposite of Akasha`s who was only one to balance his violent nature in the Vampire Council. Otherwise he would start the war with humanity long time ago. Gyokuro seriously considered that male her main ally.

On the left sat a young guy with curly blonde hair and extremely innocent look. He wore a plain white shirt and dark pants and had a thick chain with a big golden rosary decorated with three sapphires hanging from his neck. Gyokuro saw that male first time but as she knew he was a new head of Habicht clan who had succeed to his father some months ago. The vampire female couldn`t even imagine what that youngster would do but was pretty sure he wouldn`t be too cocky to disagree with other two. So young vampire wasn`t a problem at all.

And the last one was Stanislav, an old eccentric vampire from Eastern Europe. Despite his age he looked pretty young. Stanislav had long grey hair and wore nearly ridiculous black cape and all-fashioned shirt. He had three silver rosaries with strange symbols. The old vampire seemed indifferent and always said he didn`t care about human race. But that statement never prevented Stanislav from getting into trouble with monster law as he was infamous for creating ghouls from unfortunate human tourists and keeping them as watch dogs. That council member was unpredictable but Gyokuro never considered him a real threat to her plans.

Souma stated lazily:

"As we all know, some weeks ago we had got a request from Shuzen Gyokuro, the head of Shuzen vampire clan to hold an emergency meeting. So we all are very interesting in the reasons of such a request".

Gyokuro nodded beginning her explanation choosing the words carefully. She started with a hard situation in monster society, reminded about lose of ancient authority of vampire race in last two centuries then about deep connections between Shuzen clan and the great Alucard. After that female proceeded to description of her organization, Fairy Tale. Gyokuro didn`t even try to hide its true objective. After all she spoke not to the human-loving Great Monster Council but to the Vampire Council where as she knew wasn`t any fan of that foolish coexistence idea. The vampire female ended her speech with a formal request to let her join the Council.

During her speech all three males showed different attitude. The young head of Habicht looked confused, shocked and even somehow horrified. Stanislav seemed completely uninterested. And Souma showed no emotions at all until he heard her request. For a moment he smirked evilly but immediately switched to more neutral expression.

"So you want to be a part of the Council?" asked raven-haired vampire raising from his seat and approaching Gyokuro. "Do you know that you need at least three votes for that? As we have some members missing, you have to convince us all. If even one of us don`t give you his approval we`ll reject your request".

"I know it" stated tan female firmly.

"Do you?" Souma suddenly faked a great surprise. "And still have some nerve to come here? Don`t you see these two empty seats? One of them belonged to Alucard, who was considered vampire god. Another one is Akasha`s… I know that with that sealing crap we have indefinite situation, I`ve read the report. Can we consider them alive or are they dead? But don`t forget: we had the same situation for 170 years not long ago and managed to make decisions even with only three members. So why must we change something now? Do you consider yourself much better than Alucard and Akasha?"

"I thought you hated Akasha!" snapped Gyokuro. She didn`t like his tone at all.

"I don`t remember saying that I like her" spoke raven-haired vampire coldly. "Moreover, her insane ideas of peaceful live drove me nuts. We always were complete opposites in our beliefs. But I would never disrespect Akasha Bloodriver. She was intelligent, beautiful, powerful, with nearly royal attitude… A perfect rival for me… Without her everything became too boring. And here you are… I dare say I like your ideas and plans. BUT YOU ARE NOT AKASHA! I will never approve somebody like you".

"Me too" added Stanislav indifferently. "It will be disrespect towards Akasha and her honorable father, my old friend Raven Bloodriver".

Gyokuro looked at him with poorly concealed irritation. But finishing blow was made not by old vampire as young head of Habicht clan smiled and said:

"Besides we are trying to coexist with humans. Gyokuro-san, your actions with that organization are surely break a law…"

Gyokuro clenched her teeth and left the hall without waiting of hear more.

'_These bastards! How dare they to humiliate me so much? That arrogant crap Souma and even that Habicht brat! They will pay, I swear! They will definitely regret their words!' _she thought furiously as she passed the rooms of great mansion. Some servants sidestepped with horror seeing her face. '_Akasha! Akasha! Why is everybody so obsessed with this bitch? Curses on you, Akasha! You`re still stealing everything from me! Damn you!'_

"What a temper!" whistled Stanislav as he watched Gyokuro`s leaving. "Maybe we were too harsh, weren`t we?"

Souma looked at him grimly and hissed:

"I`m sick and tired of all that clan heads who don`t know their place. No one of them has any right and they still send us endless petitions… Moreover, that old geezer Raven Bloodriver with his complains and ridiculous plans to restore old fame of his clan… Who will come here next? Some low-ranked vampire whose mother were Alucard`s mistress? Really, we must stop this immediately!"

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Tenmei Mikogami, the Headmaster of Youkai Gakuen was sitting in his office examining the envelope, which he had got some hours before, with some curiosity. Then he opened it and read the letter several times. The content made him smirked for a moment.

'_So they decided to participate in this game too' _thought Mikogami. _'Even if their chances to win are incredibly low. It seems that peaceful days will end sooner than I expected'._

"Ruby, call here Akashiya Moka" asked the Exorcist his assistant.

"Right now?" the young witch were surprised. "It`s already late".

"I have important information for her. And, by the way, make sure that she will come alone, without any of her friends"

**Author`s notes: I can`t believe I`ve finished this chapter. I had huge dilemma considering this story as I had a need in supportive characters and canon manga hadn`t enough characters who would be fitting for my ideas. I suddenly understood that only vampires in canon are Moka`s relatives and Alucard. And so on.**

**So I wrote a chapter with some OC. I`m really hoping that I hadn`t created any Mary Sue. Till the next time! **


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4: Moka`s choice, Tsukune`s choice.

When Ruby knocked at her dorm`s door Moka was surprised as she had never expected her friend to come that late. But when the witch told her reason to come she was totally speechless for a moment. What could cause that late call from Headmaster? The girl hadn`t even slightest idea.

It was completely dark outside. Besides for some reason the cold penetrating wind was blowing. It was odd for Youkai Gakuen where weren`t any change of seasons. Because of that uneasy cold even familiar tombstones surrounding the dorm looked somehow grim and scary. Moka felt some uneasiness and couldn`t help shivering.

'_**Omote, don`t tell me you are scared' **_Inner Moka reacted immediately. _**'You are vampire, by the God`s sake!'**_

"I`m not scared" whispered pink-haired beauty. "I`m somehow feeling uneasy. And now this cold wind looks for me as bad omen".

'_**And what are you worrying for?' **_asked Ura with some interest. _**'About that suspicious and creepy Headmaster whose real motives even I still fail to understand?'**_

"Not at all" Outer Moka shook her head. "It is strange that he`s called me so late but nothing more. In truth I was worried even before Ruby`s visit. It`s about Tsukune. It seemed that he`s calmed about his family situation but somehow I have a strange feeling… It`s something like if I leave him alone he`ll vanish forever and I`ll be never able to meet him again".

'_**Omote, sometimes I really wonder how many stupid thoughts come to your head' **_Ura`s tone was sore. _**'Tsukune has never give you reason for that thought. Hasn`t he already told you that you`re precious for him? And you still think he will leave you without saying a word, don`t you?'**_

"No, I know it" murmured pink-haired girl slightly embarrassed. "But you know… Tsukune was the first person to accept me for who I am. He became my friend despite we were raised in different worlds. Besides I lo…" she suddenly stopped. Was she really going to said she loved Tsukune? No way! Outer Moka had never reflected about her feelings towards the human boy. Yes, she appreciated him greatly, she even admired his kindness and selflessness. Besides pink-haired vampire was found of her friend`s blood. But did that kind of relationship deserve the word "love"? She didn`t know.

Inner Moka chuckled. Omote realized too late that silver-haired vampire could read her thoughts and flushed as if she had been caught doing something dishonest.

'_**Come on, Omote, just admit that you`ve fell in love with him. Be honest to yourself. Those succubus, yuki-onna and witches, for example, have never tried to hide their feelings. You know, one day one of them will steal Tsukune`s heart if you keep pretending being only friend' **_said Inner Moka.

Omote suddenly looked at her rosary with suspicion: "And why are you suddenly worried about that? Aren`t you the one who always said that she hadn`t any feeling for Tsukune?"

'_**It`s only your imagination' **_replied Ura hastily. But Outer Moka hadn`t left her alone:

"Don`t try to deceive me! I know that you definitely have some feelings for Tsukune. You`re always worried for him more than I but hide this fact. Admit yourself that you love him!"

'_**What the hell are you saying?' **_growled Inner Moka.

"I say, I have a crush at Tsukune but so have you!" yelled Omote with irritation. Her voice echoed through empty corridor and only then she realized with horror that she had already got near the Headmaster`s office. Moreover, the door of office suddenly opened revealing Mikogami with his usual creepy smile. It would be a real miracle if he hadn`t heard Moka`s yell. Omote blushed from embarrassment, but Ura blushed even harder relieved only by the fact that Headmaster couldn`t see or hear her when she was sealed.

"Good evening, Akashiya Moka-san" the priest greeted the girl with smirk. "It`s nice to be young, isn`t it? Come in, I was waiting for you".

'_He`s heard!' _thought Omote. _'What a shame! At least, I`m glad that it was Headmaster instead of somebody like Kurumu or, which would be much worse, Yukari…'_

She enter the office with some hesitation as she still hadn`t even slightest clue why she was called there. Moka looked around and then something caught her eye. It was Belmont whip lying on the desk. The vampire girl began to understand the situation. Something important had to happen as Headmaster decided to speak with her inner self. Moka took a whip and felt her sealing released. Her pink hair and green eyes were replaced by silver and red. Inner Moka looked at Headmaster with some curiosity:

"**I assume, you`ve called me here not for relaxing conversation".**

"You`ve hit the nail, Akashiya-san" nodded Mikogami. "I have some news for you but I don`t know whether they are nice or unpleasant for you. Today I`ve got a letter concerning you… By the way, what do you know about Bloodriver?"

"**It is my mother`s last name. I`ve also heard that Bloodriver is a vampire clan somewhere in Europe… You see, I haven`t much knowledge about vampire society. At first, I was too young to be interested in it, later I was sealed and lived in human world. I suppose that Bloodriver clan are my relatives from mother`s side"**answered Moka.

"Exactly. The current head of Bloodriver clan is your uncle. It was him who wrote this letter" the Headmaster took the paper out of his desk and gave it to vampire girl. "Your uncle invited you to visit Bloodriver`s castle as all your relatives are eager to meet you. He also asked me to give you permission to skip some weeks. He`ll send a plane for you if you agree".

"**I have a question. Can I take somebody with me?" **asked silver-haired vampire never reading the letter.

"Alas, you can`t. Your uncle hasn`t stated it directly but no one of your friends will be welcomed there".

"**And of course, I can`t take Belmont whip with me as it is priceless and unique item" **continued Moka. **"So must I give a reply now?"**

Mikogami gave her another creepy smile:

"No, I can wait for it until tomorrow afternoon".

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Tsukune was sitting at his desk looking at his math home task. He couldn`t get it at all. It was either because of its difficulty or because the teenager couldn`t concentrate on math. The later was more likely as he still couldn`t help thinking about his father. Something was extremely wrong but Tsukune still couldn`t solve that puzzle. He had to admit that he hadn`t enough pieces of information. Moreover, he had serious inward struggle: on one hand, he was going to find his father no matter what, on other – human boy couldn`t help agreeing with Kyoko. He had no clue about his father's whereabouts.

Tsukune sighed and closed his copybook. The math couldn`t divert his thoughts at all. Maybe he was too tired. The teenager stretched dropping unintentionally some books on the floor. Cursing he began to gather them. Suddenly two words picked his attention. _**"Monster hunters".**_

It was a headline in the opened copybook, which once belonged to mysterious Y. K. Tsukune nearly forgot about it lately but now like under the spell picked it up and read.

_Monster hunters. Who are they? Saviors of humankind? Nemesis of youkai? Or maybe something else? Monster hunters are definitely human yet they are considered legendary by humanity. Or even worse, they are called madmen or frauds. So they are forced to live in the shadow of human civilization._

_Monster hunters are humans yet also they are somebody who exceeded normal human being. As centuries passed they trained their body and mind to outmost limits, explored weaknesses of monsters and invented weapons to kill them. Somehow, these people managed to become equal to youkai._

_Monster hunters are saviors, great heroes and abyssal fiends in the same time. Witnessing cruelty of youkai they became violent beasts themselves, sometimes even more blood-thirsty than actual monsters. They show no mercy killing youkai without distinction. At the same time they`re killing their own heart._

_Ironically, even if monster hunters are sworn enemies of youkai they also became the tastiest food for them. Flesh and blood of these humans for some reason is considered the best. Maybe it`s truth, or maybe stupid myth. I don`t know as I`ve never tasted the blood of monster hunter._

_Monster hunters are strong and terrifying and still they`re pitiful beings with no real place in this world. Forever alone, forever misunderstood by humans, forever hated by youkai…_

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A young female was running through the thick forest. Vines and branches were catching her long fair braids and odd robe slowing her down. The woman turned around hoping that her pursuer had lost her track. The noise told her she was wrong so she ran again.

The female couldn`t get how she`d ended in that kind of situation. It was like a bad nightmare. She was an average witch, not so good in magic, by the way. That evening the witch was on her way home, imagining happy faces of her two sons and husband who would definitely welcome her. The sudden feeling of killing intent interrupted her cheerful thoughts. The young woman took out her wand and turn around and then…

She`d never understood how her attacker managed to break her wand so easily leaving her completely defenseless. He somehow knew witches` most weakness not to be able to use magic without magical item. The female had no other option than ran away but the stranger didn`t let her go following her.

The witch swallowed dryly while trying to understand why she were attacked. She never had any enemies, she was too clumsy to be considered as a menace for some one. Besides the female saw her attacker first time. Not to mention that he didn`t feet the image of some crazy psycho. The attacker as the witch noticed was a middle-aged man with pretty average appearance. But why was he pursuing her?

Suddenly the witch reached the clearing. It was hopeless as the pursuer finally caught up to her. The young woman couldn`t even hide now. With utter horror she noticed a dagger in stranger`s hand.

"Please, don`t kill me" the witch pleaded in a voice close to breaking. "I… I haven`t done anything wrong…"

The man went over to her. There was no emotion in his eyes. The witch fell to her knees and grabbed on his shirt. Tears of fear and despair were rolling down her pale cheeks.

"I beg you, let me go… I have a family… children… They`d not get over my death…" the female cried. For a brief moment some odd expression gleamed in the man`s eyes. Was that sympathy? Or maybe sorrow? Anyway, it became a faint ray of hope for poor woman, which immediately showed in her eyes. And the next moment the dagger pierced her heart.

The witch had no opportunity even to realize what had happened. Her grip loosened as she fell on the ground with face still distorted with fear and faint glimpse of hope in her eyes. As the witch gasped her last breath she whispered, her voice barely audible:

"Ko… ji…"

The man froze as suddenly he saw his own wife Kasumi lying in a pool of blood instead of that unknown witch. Aono Koji shook his head to break the illusion. It was a mere coincidence that the woman called somebody with the same name. Was that Koji her lover or husband? It didn`t matter anyhow.

'_You`ve killed somebody for your own convenience. Again' _ a faintly voice said with deep sadness and sorrow. It wasn`t actual voice but more kind of memory.

"I know" answered Koji. "But the end justifies the means. I did it to protect my family. You`d probably say that it`s cruel. That these bloodstained hands have no right to hug beloved woman. That I`ll never be able to look straight into my son`s eyes. I knew it long ago. I`ve already bid farewell to my family as I never planned to return. My only goal is to murder _**that person **_by any means. And this death is only one step to get closer to _**him**_"

He knelt beside dead body of witch and closed her eyes.

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Even if her outer self fell asleep long ago, Inner Moka was restless. That sudden invitation from Bloodriver clan surely brought back some childhood memories. She could remember a sad expression, which appeared on Akasha`s face every time her little daughter asked about her relatives. As well Moka couldn`t forget all those letters sent by her mother to her grandpa which never got answer. It was for sure that relations between Akasha and her family were cold and strained. Besides, Bloodriver clan never showed real interest for Moka. So what had changed now?

On other hand, Ura had a faint hope that her mother`s relatives had at least clue about Akasha`s whereabouts. After her disappearance Moka hadn`t heard about her. In truth, she missed her kind and beautiful mother greatly.

The silver-haired vampire was ready to visit those relatives herself if she wasn`t sealed. But to throw naïve and clumsy Omote in wolf`s den? No way. Ura knew nothing about Bloodriver clan but she knew perfectly violent nature of vampires as she saw enough living in Shuzen castle. The only way was to undo the seal. But how could she do that? Ura was sure that she couldn`t steal Belmont. Even if she managed to do that Inner Moka wasn`t sure about Headmaster`s reaction. Neither she couldn`t take Tsukune with her as she couldn`t guaranty his safety.

The only option left was to take off rosary while still in school but that was a way too risky. Ura had never remained unsealed for a long time before to know what consequences it would have. The worst of them was that the seal might be broken. And yet deep inside Moka was willing to take the risk.

When Omote woke up Ura told her all she thought about risks and opportunities of visit to Bloodriver`s castle. The silver-haired beauty was ready to hear loud protest but her outer self surprised her greatly as she insisted on removal of seal.

"I think everything will be OK" the pink-haired girl smiled optimistically. "If you want to meet our relatives it`s great. I`m sure there is some misunderstanding between them and Mom. I am too clumsy to solve it but you`re more mature than me, Ura-chan. As for seal, you`ll never know until you try".

So Moka visited the Headmaster`s office before the lessons and told him her decision. It wasn`t that hard after all. The problem was to explain her friends that sudden departure. As Moka predicted they didn`t take it well.

"Are you going to visit your relatives that you`ve never met and skip some weeks?" inquired Tsukune.

"Yeah" answered Moka, slightly embarrassed. She wasn`t pleased that Ura left all explanation to her.

"So how long do you plan to stay there?" asked Kurumu thoughtfully and exchanged a glance with Mizore. They surely had some plans to snatch away Tsukune from the most serious rival while she would be absent. It was a perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, Yukari noticed that glance and hit both girls with yellow basins.

"Don`t worry, Moka!" exclaimed young witch cheerfully. "I`ll keep these two in check during your absence. No one will ruin our perfect threesome and…"

Next moment she was interrupted by very pissed Kurumu and Mizore:

"What did you say, flat-chest?"

"I think somebody needs to cool down a little…"

Tsukune never knew what was the final of that cat-fight as Moka suddenly grabbed his hand and dragged him quietly outside. Others were too preoccupied with their quarrel to notice their friends left.

"So is this a farewell?" asked Tsukune while they were walking among the tombstones. Moka nodded and then asked with blush:

"May I?.."

"Sure" the human boy sighed. Sometimes she was so predictable. He hadn`t any need to hear the end of her question. Moka was a vampire, after all, and without doubt would like to drink his blood before parting. Sometimes Tsukune wondered what was his role in the pink-haired girl life. Yeah, she called him her friend but what if it was only sweet lie and the human was merely a source of blood for the vampire?

The teenager felt her fangs piercing his neck as she began to suck his blood. He`d already used to that feeling but at first it scared him like a hell. Deep in thought, Tsukune failed to notice that Moka placed his hand on her rosary and then pulled it.

The powerful youki engulfed surroundings. The human boy witnessed with awe how his cute pink-haired friend was changing into powerful silver-haired vampire. Soon Inner Moka stood before him with cold expression on her face.

"**I`m leaving"** she stated seriously instead of any greeting.

"I already know" answered Tsukune with surprise.

"**You don`t get it"** smirked silver-haired beauty. **"I`m leaving now. The Bus Driver will take me to the private airfield".**

"But why have you decide to remove your rosary?" Tsukune was surprised.

Moka chuckled:

"**I thought, I`ve already told your about true nature of vampires. They are violent and bloodthirsty if you`ve already forgotten. Somebody like sensitive and weak Omote can`t do a thing against them. That place is more suited for me". **

"Will you be alright?" Tsukune looked at her with worry. "You know, I can go with you".

The silver-haired vampire smirked again and snatch her rosary from his hand:

"**With me? Are you joking? Don`t tell me you`re worried because of me! Somebody as weak and fragile as you wants to protect me? Nonsense! Don`t confuse me with Omote. When did I give you a reason to worry about me?"**

"Forgive me" said the human boy hastily expecting a kick from Inner Moka. It never happened. Instead Ura looked at him a smile:

"**You have your own problems to be worried about… I know about your father. Well, Omote won`t agree with me but… As soon as you get a clue of your father`s whereabouts find him and choke the truth out of him. If your dad really cheated on your mother, kick his ass for making her cry. And if it`s a lie – kick his ass even harder because it`s not funny joke at all". **

Tsukune nodded in shock. He never saw Ura with such caring expression. The vampire understood as well that she had shown too much emotion and turned away to hide embarrassed blush.

"**Anyway, farewell… Until the next meeting" **the silver-haired beauty spoke coldly and left. Her magnificent hair was glittered in the sunlight and Tsukune suddenly thought that he`d never seen anything as beautiful as it…

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Moka departure influenced Newspaper club more than anybody would think. The usual cat-fights in some way lose its mood and became more like boring quarrels. Meetings with Tsukune in mornings also lost their important part without blood-sucking vampire. Even Kurumu and Mizore admitted that they missed their love rival.

Kokoa on other hand was furious because her sister said her nothing about her visit to Bloodriver`s castle. She vented her wrath on anybody who approached her. The most of damage was taken by school infamous lolicon Haiji and the great peeper Gin. Others tried their best to avoid red-haired vampire.

But even without Moka the life hadn`t stopped. At last Newspaper club finished the special issue which had taken so much efforts. So the Student Council left them alone.

After the lessons Tsukune decided to take a walk around the campus as the girls were preoccupied with something. It was a perfect chance to reflect in solitude. In truth the human boy missed Moka more than anybody. It was like part of his soul was gone. Deep inside Tsukune was angry at himself that he hadn`t followed the silver-haired beauty despite her words.

Suddenly he found himself in incredibly familiar place. Here Inner Moka kicked Saizo`s ass last year. Here they met first time.

'_Nothing has changed'_ thought Tsukune. _'The trees and tombstones are the same. Even Saizo is here as well… Stop, Saizo?'_

Really, Komiya Saizo stood between two crosses with his usual self-confident expression. Even the fact that he was beaten first by Moka and then by Tsukune last year hadn`t changed his attitude at all.

"Aono!" growled Saizo. "I`m here to beat a crap out of you! You`ll pay for that humiliation I suffered last year!"

He rushed at him transforming his hand. But Tsukune reacted automatically, dodged his punch with ease and hit Saizo back knocking him out.

'_Was he always so weak?' _thought the human with shock.

"Bravo!" exclaimed a deep woman voice. "You`ve shown this scum his place!"

Tsukune looked around and noticed a strange woman sitting on the cross nearby. She seemed to witness the entire encounter. The female wore lumpy brown coat and baggy jeans that looked untidy. She had incredibly long orange hair and slightly insane black eyes. The human boy had never met this person before. The stranger looked too old to be a student of Youkai Gakuen. Was she somebody from staff? Unlikely, as she never tried either stop the fight or help Saizo after he passed out. Then someone`s relative?

The woman leaped down and went to Tsukune. While she was passing unconscious Saizo she suddenly stopped and kicked his body with violent smirk. But her facial expression changed immediately as she began to praise the human boy in cheerful sweet voice:

"You have potential, young man. That punch was great, not to mention your reaction and reflexes…"

"Sorry, I need to go" murmured Tsukune turning away. He didn`t like that strange female at all so tried to get away from her. He even made some steps when her voice reached him again, now cold and composed:

"You know, she`d lied to you".

Tsukune stopped and heard the end of phrase:

"Your mother, that`s is".

The teenager turned around:

"What have you said?"

"So now you`re interested" smirked the woman. "Your mother lied you about your father. She knows much more then she told you, Tsukune-kun".

"You know my name?" cried the human boy. "Who are you?"

" Someone who will help you to find your dad".

"Do you know his whereabouts?" asked Tsukune with surprise.

"Maybe, yes. Maybe, no" the female said rather enigmatically and suddenly dropped something in front of the boy. Tsukune stooped down to pick the thing up. It was small note with only two words. _**Hakurei village.**_

"What does it mean?" inquired the boy but got no answer. He looked around. The strange woman had already vanished. Tsukune looked at the note again. Was that a clue? It did no harm if he`d check that place on the weekend. He remembered Inner Moka`s advice.

'_**As soon as you get a clue of your father`s whereabouts find him and choke the truth out of him. If your dad really cheated on your mother, kick his ass for making her cry. And if it`s a lie – kick his ass even harder because it`s not funny joke at all'.**_

"It seems not so easy as we thought" he murmured.

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**Author`s note: I`ve change the category for M from this chapter as I`m afraid it`ll become too violent on later chapters too feat on T category. Thanks everybody who read this fic. Till the next time! **


	6. Chapter 6

_**Wow, I haven`t updated for a while. It has nothing to do with a writer`s block. I simply had midterms and two important projects to do. Sorry everybody for your waiting. Now I have holidays and hope to update more frequently.**_

Chapter 5: Unwelcome

"Mikogami-sama, we…" Ruby burst into Headmaster`s office with worried look on her face and suddenly stopped. The words chocked in her throat when she saw the Exorcist. The great Dark Lord was playing chess with himself! Moreover, he even looked creepier than usual.

"Say, Ruby" asked the Headmaster thoughtfully "Do you like chess?"

"Well, um, I don`t know… Oyakata-sama taught me to play this game but I didn`t understand it" the witch was confused by sudden question. "Chess is too complicated…"

"Complicated, you say?" grunted Mikogami and put white king in check. "It`s child`s play compared with _**that **_game".

"That game?" Ruby still couldn`t get what was going on. The Headmaster behaved stranger than ever.

"No established rules, no regulations. One can participate every moment and quit when he wish. The number of players is unlimited as well as number and quality of pieces. Moreover, one can get additional pieces during the game. One can form alliances with other players or break them when he feels like that. Besides, the pieces sometimes are not so obedient and can betray you and change sides. No wonder, that there are only near two hundred players, who at least understand this game, all over the world, both among humans and youkai" the Dark Lord smirked creepily.

Ruby looked at him with curiosity: it was the first time when Headmaster told her something not concerning the work.

"I used to be one of the best players," continued Mikogami. It seemed he didn`t care if Ruby was listening or not as he was simply speaking his thoughts. "Two hundred years ago, a century ago, sixty years ago and twenty-five years ago – they all were perfect games with greatest rivals. Now it seems that they`ve started even more exciting one and waiting for me to join. Alas, I think I am growing too old for it".

"Why do you think so?" the witch was shocked. Had Headmaster really admitted his weakness?

"I failed to predict participation of one more player. I thought there would be a game between two decent opponents and then the third one would be forced to join. Instead, that old rascal decided to participate too. Well, at least, I know his motives so his moves were predictable. Another problem that I still can`t get what one of my greatest rivals is planning now. So I`ll be a mere spectator for a while. For now there is no need to risk this school…"

"What do you mean by "to risk this school"?" Ruby gasped.

"Nothing serious" Headmaster chuckled and looked at his secretary. "By the way, Ruby, why have you come here?"

"I totally forgot!" exclaimed the girl shaking free of her confusion. "We have a problem! Some students saw a stranger in the campus and Bus Driver has no clue about this incident. That`s definitely intrusion!"

"No wonder" murmured Mikogami barely audible. "He had to make his move as well…" Then he added louder:

"So, who was the intruder? Middle-aged man?"

"Students described her as a strange young woman with bright orange hair," answered Ruby.

"Well, that was unpredictable too" said Headmaster in a low, almost monotonous voice. "For that selfish and arrogant girl to come here herself… Ruby," suddenly he drove away unpleasant thoughts and smirked almost evilly: "We can`t let them do everything they want. You must investigate this incident and find how that woman managed to get here. I`m sure she used a different way than our transdimentional passage."

When Ruby left, Mikogami looked at the chessboard and grunted:

"Maybe I`m old, but I`m still unbeaten. Your greatest mistake was that you underrated me…"

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…_The twelve-year-old boy was walking the deserted streets of little settlement looking with slight disgust at horrifying scene after him. The land there became like a butchers yard, the bloody, mutilated corpses were everywhere, some of them missing heads or limbs. He had seen dead bodies before, plenty of them, but that massacre was something outstanding. Monsters had spared nobody, as there were a lot of dead women and children. Most of corpses were sucked dry indicating that vampires guided the attack._

'_Disgusting,' thought the boy with a frown and kicked a severed hand. 'And they called themselves "nobility"? Ridiculous!'_

_He passed some more houses reaching his destination – the small old church. They said him that there were somebody like him inside that building. The boy opened the door and entered the church. Before he managed to look around, a big vase was thrown at his head. He dodged only instinctively and next moment a rosary was thrust in his face. The boy stepped back with surprise and at last managed to look round him._

_There was aftermath of the massacre in the church as well. Somebody mutilated corpses with great violence, the guts and blood were splashed everywhere. A raven-haired boy of nearly ten stood amidst of that hellish scene. He definitely had witnessed all that horror. His clothes were stained by dried blood. He held a plain wooden cross in his hand in protective manner. It was so unlike luxurious vampires` seals, but as it was real holy item, it was deadly for those blood-sucking monsters. As the elder boy knew, that only survivor was staying there for three days defending with only that rosary. A true cornered little animal._

_Then, something was terribly wrong. It took the elder boy several seconds to notice that. There was no fear or hatred in calm brown eyes of the little survivor. Instead they were full of hope and determination. To fight monsters without fear and hatred for whole three days? That was incredible, no, impossible. _

'_He is not like me at all' thought the elder boy with annoyance. Suddenly the childish voice broke the grim silence:_

"_You`re not a monster, are you?" The raven-haired boy was looking at him with great surprise…_

Koji woke with a start and looked around. No, it wasn`t that bloodstained church, only a room in a cheap provincial hotel.

'_That dream. Again'_ he thought walking to the sink and splashing some water on his face.

'_You`re not a monster, are you?' _whispered childish voice in the back of his mind.

'_By God`s sake, Koji! You`re not a monster, so stop this crap!' _yelled angrily another one belonged to teenage boy.

'_Koji, I`ll tell you this last time: you`re not a monster. I can`t let you do this' _the last voice was deep, calm and full of determination.

"You`re wrong" the man looked behind him as if he hoped to see somebody there. The room was still empty. "We were different from the very beginning. Your soul was pure, while I was taught to kill from early age. I was never free. Because of that you died. And I definitely don`t want to lose anybody again. I`m going to break my chains, no matter how…"

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Moka stretched and yawned. The trip in bus was boring, the flight was tiresome and the ride on the limousine was not funny as well. The grim tall servant who accompanied her stayed silent all the time. Moka even suspected him of being mute. No wonder, that silver-haired beauty was nearly happy when they at last reached their destination.

The Bloodriver castle was surrounded by a thick forest. Most likely, that place stayed unknown by humans. Moka glanced at the great construction comparing it with her birthplace. Shuzen castle was definitely more magnificent as Bloodriver residence more resembled old fortress.

Mute servant guided girl inside the castle. Moka frowned as they hadn`t met anybody on their way. She wasn`t welcomed there after all, even if her uncle invited her. The vampire`s suspicions only rose when the servant left her alone in the little room.

'_**So welcome to your mother`s birthplace, Akashiya Moka-san' **_she thought with irony and sat down on the expensive sofa. _**'Somehow, I`m really relieved that neither Omote, nor Tsukune witnessed that. Somebody like them would be really depressed after such a "welcome"'.**_

She looked around absent-mindedly and suddenly rose from sofa as she noticed a picture on the wall. It was a portrait of young woman in dark dress. She had beautiful pink hair and kind green eyes.

"**Omote?"** whispered Inner Moka and came closer. She understood her mistake immediately. It was a portrait of Akasha Bloodriver. Moka had never realized before that her outer self was splitting image of her mother.

She sat down again as childhood memories overwhelmed her. Akasha was always so kind, so bright, so sympathetic. Yet she was self-confident, proud and strong. No wonder that little Moka admired her mother greatly. She was like a sun in her tiny world. Akasha taught her only daughter how to fight to protect her own ideals, how not to yield to cruelty, how to resist the violent nature of vampire.

"_You can be strong, stronger than anybody. But never use your power to humiliate somebody weaker than yourself for your own pleasure" _that was first Akasha`s teaching. Moka still remembered that day when she, still being a naïve little girl, asked her mother what she had to use her power for. The woman hadn`t answered that question and only smiled.

"_You`ll find it one day" _that was Akasha`s answer. Moka sighed. No matter how many years passed she still hadn`t solve that puzzle. What had she used her abilities for until now? For kicking asses of some jerks? The silver-haired beauty smirked at the memory of her punishment for those bastards who dared to attack Omote, Tsukune or her friends. Maybe, that was real reason. Her power was for protection of those who were dear to her heart. Omote was like a little naïve and clumsy sister, Kurumu, Mizore, Yukari, Ruby and even that pervert Gin had already become her friends, and Tsukune… Well, he was the first person to accept her as she was. Inner Moka remembered his wide smile.

"_It doesn`t matter, Inner or Outer… Moka is Moka" _Tsukune`s kind words sounded in her mind once again.

'_**I`m not falling in love with him!' **_thought Inner Moka angrily as if she was expecting somebody`s remark. There was only silence. Her pink-haired counterpart wasn`t there to argue about Ura`s feelings.

'_**Liar,' **_the vampire looked at the wall, mentally addressing to the human boy. _**'You love Omote, not me. I scare you because I`m violent blood-sucking monster who can only kick asses. You probably even think that I have no feelings. So are you trying to seduce me only to get to Omote? Keep trying as I`ll never fall for your tricks!'**_

Moka snuffled with scorn but then her face darkened. What was the reason in that self-convincing? Nobody heard her, anyway. Why had she to keep that cold attitude now? Was she so afraid of being rejected? Was she afraid that Tsukune really lied about his feelings?

A faint sound of steps interrupted her thoughts. Two vampires entered the room. One of them was a tall athletic man with emotionless handsome face and cold slitted scarlet eyes. His shoulder-length dark red hair was held in neat ponytail. His clothes consisted of old-fashioned snow-white shirt and black pants. As he had no seal, his youki flared furiously.

Another one was a young man, probably not much elder than Moka, who held a striking resemblance to the first vampire. But that one wasn`t emotionless. No matter how hard he tried he couldn`t hide the mixture of disdain and irritation in his eyes. His dark-red hair was short and slicked and he wore a purple expensive, but casual shirt and dark pants. The young man was without seal too but his youki wasn`t impressive at all.

"Welcome to Bloodriver castle, Moka… You don`t mind if I`ll call Moka, do you?" greeted the elder vampire in English. His voice was as cold and emotionless as his face.

"**Not at all"** answered the girl without any great respect. That man wasn`t even concerned if she knew English at all. Moka was really glad that she was taught several foreign languages by her mother.

"My name is Grey Bloodriver. I`m Akasha`s elder brother" continued the man. "And this is my son, Seth".

"Nice to meet you," young man known as Seth winced and forced a fake smile. He definitely was not so happy about his cousin`s visit, moreover, seemed to have already detested her. In her turn Moka gave him a little smile followed by deathly glare and said politely:

"**I hope we`ll get along".**

Seth`s lips twitched. He seemed to lost his temper and only his father`s presence refrained him from rudeness.

"I`m sure you`re tired after your trip" Grey Bloodriver still showed no emotions. Moka wondered about his real feelings. Was he glad? Or maybe angry?

"**Yes, it was quite tiresome,"** answered the silver-haired girl with courtesy. Anyway, her uncle didn`t seemed arrogant jerk like his son.

"There is a greeting party tonight. For now you can rest in your room, dear Moka. Seth will guide you there," the man told in monotonous voice and left.

Moka was left alone with her unpleasant cousin.

"So great and almighty, yeah?" began Seth maliciously. Now he had no problems with showing his true colors. "You`d better learn that Bloodriver clan are not going to be your little slaves, Shuzen bitch!"

Moka patience grew short. That guy went too far.

"**Look, Seth, I`m not a person to stand insults from anybody. I let your words pass only because I`m only a guest here. However, you know, I`m not a saint. Next time you dare to say something rude about me I`ll definitely send you flying. It doesn`t matter for me that we`re relatives" **her tone was cold and composed, yet menacing. Usually it was enough to scare to death most of opponents.

Seth grunted but decided to avoid conflict. He led his cousin to her room silently. The first encounter between those two was won by Moka…

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When Moka at last reached her room in Bloodriver castle she was nearly happy. Without bothering of looking around, she simply collapsed on the king-sized bed. The vampire girl wasn`t sure if there was any sense in her visit here, but she was pretty sure that she didn`t like it at all. Cold attitude of Grey Bloodriver seemed suspicious. Seth was simply irritating. Moka was eager to kick him as hard as she was able. She never liked overconfident haughty bastards like that guy.

The silver-haired beauty looked at the ceiling. She wasn`t used to be unsealed for such a long time so she felt uncomfortable. Besides, she missed Omote and her cheerful tone.

Inner Moka took her rosary out of her bag wondering about her outer counterpart. What was pink-haired girl doing now? Was she sleeping? Was she able to see what was happening with Ura? For a moment, Inner Moka was tempted to put her seal back. After all, she had enough. Then she remembered Omote`s smiling face and put the rosary in the bag. Ura would never leave Outer Moka without protection. The pink-haired sweet girl would never be able to stand cold behavior of Grey Bloodriver or Seth`s insults.

Somebody knocked at the door.

"**Go away!" **groaned Moka with irritation. The last thing she needed now was the meeting with any of her relatives.

An unknown visitor knocked more insistently. Moka got up with irritation and went to the door. She opened it so sharply, that the visitor fell on the floor, and yelled:

"**What do you want?"**

"S-sorry, I only… Forgive me, Lady Moka!" pleaded scared girlish voice.

Moka looked at the visitor. It was a young vampire girl dressed in plain white blouse and dark-brown skirt. She was slim, even fragile. The girl`s face was pretty and her shoulder-length wavy pink hair was really beautiful. Her scarlet slitted eyes were full of terror.

Moka suddenly felt sorry for that vampire girl who somehow reminded her Omote.

"**Come in. Sorry for that misunderstanding. I thought it was Seth," **said Ura with apologetic smile. Usually she didn`t show her kind side so that nobody would consider her weak. However, that girl was really pitiful being.

The visitor entered the room shyly, hardly knew where to look. She nervously tossed back a stray lock of hair, which had fallen over her brow and gave a timid little smile.

"**So what is your name? Why have you come here?" **asked Moka trying not to sound harsh.

"I`m A-anne, milady. Anne Bloodriver" the girl bowed with great respect. "I`m here to serve you, Lady Moka".

The silver-haired beauty couldn`t hold her laugher: that girl looked so funny with her awkward manners. However, Anne misunderstood the situation and sank on her knees:

"Forgive my insolence, milady. Next time, I`ll be more humble".

Now Moka looked at the pink-haired servant with sympathy and said kindly:

"**Don`t be afraid. I`m not going to punish you. And, please, stop this crap with "milady"! I`m not much elder than you, besides, I assume, we`re from the same bloodline. You can call me Moka. Aren`t you Seth`s sister?"**

The silver-haired vampire was really surprised at herself. It was the first time when she showed kindness to complete stranger. She used to be cold even with her friends. She seldom showed her worry even to Omote. No, of course, deep inside Ura was incredibly caring person but she was a proud vampire as well, so it was inappropriate for her to show that nature.

"I`m not a sister of Young Master, mi… ehm… Moka" answered Anne quitely. "We`re distant relatives… Are you sure it`s normal to call you by name?"

"**Sure" **said Moka, grabbing girl`s hand and forcing her to sit down on the bed. She tried to start conversation:

"**So, how old are you, Anne?"**

"Fourteen".

"**What school do you attend?"**

"None… You see I`m homeschooled. My parents don`t approve human schools" Anne still avoided Moka`s eyes. The silver-haired beauty chuckled: it was the first time when she met such a shy vampire.

"**And what about friends?"**

"Friends?" asked Anne in disbelief. "They said the strong and proud vampire has no need in friends".

Moka smirked and tapped the girl on the forehead. The pink-haired young vampire was even more naïve than Omote, and Ura suddenly wanted to tease her.

"**Friends are not so bad. Even if they`re not perfect" **Moka thought of her own friends. Everybody was so unique. Kurumu, proud of her breast, stalker Mizore, Yukari with her pranks and dirty thoughts, masochistic Ruby, perverted Gin… No one of them could not be considered normal but they still was dear to her. And then there was Tsukune, kind-hearted, caring, not bound by stereotypes… Moka suddenly blushed: she thought about him again. She nearly heard Omote`s winning laugh. Anne looked at Moka with confusion:

"Are you all right? Your face is red".

"**I`m OK" **answered Ura hastily and then changed the subject: **"You know, I have an idea. You can enroll Youkai Gakuen next year. I don`t think your parents will be against it, after all, it`s school for youkai".**

"Really?" Anne gave a shy smile. She wanted to add something but suddenly her gaze landed on the clock and she gasped. "I`ve totally forgotten! I came here to help you choose a dress for tonight party. And now we have not much time left"

Anne raised from the bed hastily and came to the wardrobe.

"What style and color do you prefer, mil… I mean, Moka" she asked nervously and began to look for appropriate dress.

Moka went to wardrobe too, looked inside without great interest and said calmly:

"**No need to panic. We`ll find something".**

The silver-haired beauty was right: she saw something to her liking soon enough. It was long scarlet evening dress with slit. Then she took out snow-white romantic dress and smiled:

"**What do you think, Anne?"**

"You said that you`ve chosen a scarlet one" answered the girl confused.

"**The white is for you, dummy!" **laughed Moka. **"It is too small for me but you`re shorter than me. I think it`ll fit you perfectly. Now try on it!" **she command and without listening to Anne`s complains helped her to put on the white dress.

Moka was right: the dress looked great on her new acquaintance, empathizing her fragility and delicacy. The silver-haired vampire girl smiled with pleasure: in truth, she always wanted to help somebody choose the clothes but never had such an opportunity. Kokoa was not interested, besides, she would be mad if her older sister tried something like that. Kurumu, Mizore or Yukari simply didn`t know about that side of Ura. Moreover, she wasn`t eager to show it to them. Of course, there was Omote, but Inner Moka was only able to give her some advices.

'_**Sometimes I want to be an average girl able to associate with people, to live carelessly and be happy' **_thought Ura sadly. _**'What a reason for a vampire pride? It only complicates everything!'**_

Suddenly Moka smirked. Complicated? Without the pride, she would be as helpless as Omote or that girl Anne. She was born as vampire, so she had to live as vampire. Otherwise, she would be crushed by vampire society. Yeah, it was amusing to be only a teenage girl, yet Ura couldn`t let herself always behave like that. Maybe, one day she would have a right to be a weak woman, but now she had to remain strong to protect everything dear to her heart.

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"What a rare occurrence to see you here on your own will, Aono Tsukune-san" the Headmaster chuckled at the boy who was sitting before him.

Somehow Tsukune agreed with Mikogami. After all he was never eager to visit that creepy office. Every time the boy was there something unpleasant followed. Tsukune never knew what to expect from the Headmaster. Sometimes he even felt himself mere pawn in almighty hands of that suspicious person. However that time Tsukune went there himself, for his own reasons.

"So what brings you here? Even I`m interested" continued the Exorcist.

"I know that it is against the rules to leave school," began Tsukune choosing his words carefully. He had to convince Mikogami, no matter how. "But I must go somewhere on the weekend".

"What is your reason?" smirked the Headmaster. He`d already known it but wanted to hear it from the teenager.

"Family affairs" answered Tsukune. He had no intention to tell Mikogami any more. It wasn`t his business after all.

The Exorcist smirked. He had predicted that words as well.

"So you decided to visit your family".

"No" the boy shook his head. "I want to go somewhere else".

"Won`t you mind of telling me your destination? I can`t let you go to a random place" insisted the Headmaster. It was something new. It was unbelievable for Aono boy to try to hide something, but he definitely kept some facts back.

Tsukune hesitated for a moment and then murmured:

"I`m going to Hakurei village".

'_Oh-ho' _thought the Exorcist. _'So of all ways to tell the boy truth they chose this one. They decided to approach slowly instead of rushed actions. A wise move, as was expected. First, bring back Koji, then manipulate his son… But the reason is still unknown. And Hakurei village, of all possible places... Well, it can become unique experience for the boy'._

Mikogami looked at the student attentively:

"I have no problems with you going there. I`ll even tell the Bus Driver to get you there… But I have one last question. Do you want tell me something more?"

"No, sir" Tsukune answered without hesitation. He already thought about it. He couldn`t tell the Headmaster about that strange woman as he was sure she was an intruder. Moreover, Tsukune hadn`t felt any youki from her. It seemed that she wasn`t youkai at all. The teenager didn`t want to cause some problems to that woman. Maybe it was foolish to trust a complete stranger but he had to find his father. For now that was only clue.

"So maybe you want to tell something to your friends who are eavesdropping at the moment, don`t you?" chuckled the Exorcist.

"What?" yelled Tsukune. Next moment the door opened and embarrassed Kurumu, Mizore and Yukari entered the office.

"Headmaster-sama, forgive us such a rudeness" said Yukari. "But we were worried about Tsukune. He was acting strange and haven`t explained anything".

"Yeah!" interrupted Kurumu angrily. "What with this attitude? And what the heck with that Hakurei village?"

"You had to told us" added Mizore with insulted look. "Don`t you trust us?"

"Sorry, girls" Tsukune scratched the back of his neck. "I thought it was a family affair so…"

"So what?" yelled the succubus. "I`ll be always by your side, no matter what will happen".

"Me too" exclaimed Yukari.

"We want to help" said Mizore. "Can we go there with you?"

"I let all of you go there" chuckled Mikogami slightly amused by the fact that the girls completely ignored him.

"Anyway" Kurumu looked at Tsukune with suspicion. "Where have you got that name from? I`ve never heard from you about Hakurei village before".

"Kyoko told me" the teenager smiled sheepishly. "She called me today".

'_So that is your choice, boy? Try to hide the truth and even lie to your friends?' _reflected Mikogami when everybody left. _'Well, you`ve always kept your problems back. Are you worried about your friends? Or you are afraid to lose them if they know about your problems? Or it`s in your blood to deceive everybody? Or your intuition told you about dirty secrets of your dad? Your father complicated everything. He had to tell you the truth from the beginning, yet he raised you in ignorance. But you complicated everything as well. You only need to ask. I can tell you everything…"_

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_**Author`s notes: I feel that the passing of this story is slower. I`m eager to start the relevations and action! On other hand I don`t want to rush this story as it will resulted in too much loose ends and plot holes. For now I`m trying to describe everyone`s emotions so it will help to understand their reasons in following chapters.**_

_**About my description of Inner Moka: I always believed that she is kind-hearted and caring, as well as emotional, but her vampire pride prevented her from showing that feelings. As for Tsukune I think he is always try to hide his problems (i. e. his thirst for blood). As for Mikogami I simply want to depict him not so almighty (forgive me my insolence, Akihisa-sensei!).**_

_**I deeply appreciate any review as they help me to improve. I still have no beta:( and revising my chapters myself. English is not my native language, so please stand my mistakes and confusing writing.**_

_**Till the next time!**_


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Last chapter I used the word 'monster' to denote somebody who lost his humanity, not actual monster. Sorry, if I confused somebody. Here is the sixth chapter.**

Chapter 6: Unwelcome – part 2

As Moka recalled, vampire parties were so much like human parties with all those rumors and rivalry. The only difference was the fact that a quarrel couldn`t end peacefully in vampire party. Every disagreement could cause a great fight and nobody would speak ill of it. It was tradition. If you were strong, you were right. The weakling had to be obedient.

Well, another matter was that such fights nearly always ended as wars between clans especially those with high-ranks involved. That is why it was much better to avoid unnecessary conflict if it was possible.

That greeting party was incredibly tiresome. Moka was accompanied by her new friend Anne and, unfortunately, by her arrogant cousin Seth. The last seemed to receive orders from his father and wasn`t getting any happier about it. His despise for Moka was too obvious, besides he hid it no more.

As Moka noticed, Grey Bloodriver wasn`t present. It looked like he let his niece to be host of that party. Moka found it strange. She still couldn`t understand that person`s thoughts at all. The girl could simply imagine him scheming something. Or it was only her imagination.

Guests greeted Moka one by one introducing themselves with great pride. The vampire girl smiled politely without trying to memorize all those names and titles. For some reason, Anne again misunderstood the entire situation. Poor girl believed naively, that Moka was really interested in all those vampires, and gave remarks like:

"That man is the old friend of Lord Grey"

Or:

"This clan is one of the most influential in vampire society".

Seth didn`t stay silent as well, only his comments sounded more like insults:

"That weakling has only name".

Or:

"That old fart was stupid enough to begin a conflict with werewolves which hasn`t still end".

And even:

"What a petty excuse of dress! Never thought her family would grow poor".

After all those remarks Moka wanted to punch her cousin right in his arrogant face. He irritated her more than anybody before did. Well, maybe with exception of all those guests. Moka could hear fragments of their conversations.

"So that`s Shuzen daughter…"

"What a shame to great Bloodriver clan…"

"…Akasha, like a naïve girl…"

"…is a blemish. I wonder how…"

"If my daughter…"

"…what this girl is doing here".

Moka clenched her teeth. Those arrogant bastards dared to insult her parents despite the fact she was able to hear them. The vampire girl had enough.

"My, my, isn`t this Akasha?" suddenly a calm mysterious voice interrupted her thoughts. The sound of that familiar name made Moka start. She spun around looking desperately for her mother. Was she really present here? Then she heard timid voice of Anne:

"Lady Dalila, you`re wrong… This is not lady Akasha…"

"Be quiet, foolish child… Who do you think is wrong?" said Dalila scornfully.

"Tch, this stubborn old bat again" mumbled Seth with clear irritation.

Moka turned around once more and was staggered with astonishment. She couldn`t believe her own eyes: the woman before her was a vampire, without doubt, but she looked incredibly old. It seemed nearly impossible as vampires were considered to have eternal youth.

Dalila was short old woman in old-fashioned black dress. Her long hair was completely white. It was hard to say if that was her natural colour or it was because of age. Her wrinkled face held something noble, even royal and her red slitted eyes were full of pride and knowledge. The old woman was leaning lightly on her tortoiseshell crane.

"**Good evening, Lady Dalila" **Moka smiled politely trying to hide her shock.

"Akasha, my dear, how are you?" exclaimed the old lady cheerfully. "And what`s with that "Lady Dalila"? You always called me Grandma Dalila before!"

"**Who is it?" **whispered Moka to Anne. Now she really needed an explanation. But instead of timid servant girl, Seth answered his cousin`s question:

"This is Dalila, annoying and completely insane hag" he didn`t lowered his voice at all. "I`m not sure if she saw dinosaurs, but she definitely met some mastodons".

"Young master, this is rude" said Anne quietly.

"Come on!" Seth smiled cockily. "Dalila is nearly blind and deaf, not mention, she is crazy. She always mixes up names and tells some nonsense. And…"

He was interrupted as the crane hit his head. The impact was so hard that the young man collapsed on his knees.

"Learn your place, Vincent! You ought to show more respect to elder people!" sniffed old vampire.

"Who is that damned Vincent?" yelled Seth angrily. "My name is Seth, stupid hag!"

Next hit was even stronger. Dalila looked at the young man with utter disgust:

"Somebody like you is a shame for our race… Look at Akasha! Strong, beautiful, noble… Yet she know how to behave herself with old people".

"Whatever," murmured the young man and left. He looked so miserable that Moka couldn`t help laughing. Of course, she preferred to show her arrogant cousin his place herself, but that wasn`t much worse either.

"Young men nowadays…" sighed Dalila. Then she looked at Moka and smiled kindly:

"So, how are you, my dear girl? It was so boring here without you".

"**I`m fine, Grandma Dalila" **answered Moka, suddenly growing serious. She liked that old lady, but Dalila saw not her. Those kind words were for her mother, Akasha Bloodriver.

"Everybody is too self-confident," stated Dalila. That phrase had no connection with her previous words, so Moka looked at her with great surprise.

"You know," continued old lady, "there was a time when monsters were worshipped as gods by humans. That time is past, but there are still idiots who dream to conquer human race. What a shame! They simply need to accept that humans became much stronger as well".

Moka smiled. The old woman made her feel warm and cozy. She hadn`t had such a feeling since her mother left.

"**You must be really old. You`ve witnessed so much"** said Moka without thinking. Then she remembered about crane and was ready to dodge it. But Dalila only chuckled:

"You know it yourself. Don`t tell me you`ve already forgotten your frequent visits to my mansion, Akasha. You actually enjoyed my tales even if they were cruel and tragic, didn`t you? Do you remember? A hero who wanted to protect his beloved ones became a mindless beast… A boy dreaming about coexistence ended as a soulless tyrant… What a pitiful stories!.. Anyway, if you want to listen to my boring old woman`s reminiscence, I`ll be glad to see you in my mansion, my dear".

"**OK" **nodded Moka.

"Oh, by the way, don`t be too polite with these arrogant bastards" sniffed Dalila. "If they insult you, show them their place immediately. Don`t be afraid that you`ll begin the war between clans. You`re daughter of Bloodriver family, nobody will dare to challenge you. Do you understand me, Moka?"

"**Yes, but…" **the girl suddenly stopped and looked at the old lady with shock: **"Have you called me by my actual name?"**

Dalila laughed:

"Of course, my dear! I knew from the start that you`re not Akasha. I may be old but I`m still in my right mind".

"**But why do you pretend to be crazy?"**

The old lady bent down to girl`s ear and whispered:

"Don`t you think these brats` reactions are amusing?" then she grinned and went away.

Moka looked around and saw that Anne was talking with some vampire teenagers while Seth stood alone in the opposite corner of room.

Suddenly the silver-haired beauty felt a hand slip round her waist. It was a blonde young man with smug face and fashionable clothes.

"Bored to death, cutie?" asked he with self-confident grin.

"**Get your dirty hands out of me" **Moka`s voice was cold and full of menace. Everybody who knew her would already have fled for his life but that stranger was too dumb to understand the danger.

"Don`t be so cold" he tried to hug her. Moka took the young man`s wrist and twisted his arm behind his back until he jumped back.

"Come on! Why so harsh?" the young man didn`t understand obvious hints and continued to molest the silver-haired beauty.

"**Get lost!" **growled Moka and turned around to go away. Next moment she felt that somebody pinched her on the bottom. That was the last straw. First cold greeting, then Seth`s insults, arrogant behavior of guests and now that pervert! Moka gave all her irritation and rage to the single kick.

The lively chatter on the party instantly evaporated as somebody had flown across the hall and hit the opposite wall.

"**KNOW YOUR PLACE, DIRTY PERVERT!" **roared Moka.

Deep silence reigned in the packed hall. Sound of breaking glass dropped by one of the guests was like a crack of thunder. Anne paled and gasped. Seth cursed. An apathetic guest tried to applaud but his companion`s elbow jabbed his ribs. Some girls giggled nervously.

"I repeat it again: it was too boring here without Akasha!" stated lady Dalila solemnly.

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The outskirts of small town was covered by darkness as there were no streetlights. The group of thugs walking down the street was delighted. They were drunk and intoxicated out of their minds. So, when one of them saw lonely passer-by, he rushed to him with yell:

"Hey, old man!.."

The passer-by turned around and the thug paled and froze in place, trembling with terror. The stranger had already left when other thugs caught up with their friend.

"What`s happened, Tanaka?" asked one of them.

Tanaka was looking in the darkness with terror as if he expected the stranger to return. His hands were shaking. Then he whispered:

"Devil… I saw the eyes of devil…"

Aono Koji was in very bad humor that night. And then that thug who troubled him… Koji gave him deathly glare unintentionally, but that was more than enough.

The man went in a phone box and dialed number. The call was answered immediately.

"Hajime? This is Koji".

"Koji?" there was surprise in Hajime`s voice. "What do you want?"

"Stop fucking around. You know why I call," said Koji coldly. "I`ve done the work".

"Already? OK, let`s meet tomorrow in the same café" sniffed Hajime.

"Hajime, I hope you remember not to touch my family, otherwise…" Koji didn`t finish his threat and slammed down the phone.

Hajime frowned and dropped the phone onto the table. Several days before he nearly believed that Koji really became average salary man. Now the blonde man understood his mistake. That cold merciless voice, without doubts, belonged to Koji known by Hajime.

The blonde man looked around the luxurious room and stiffened as he saw orange-haired woman in the armchair. She shook her head, and then broke into a smile:

"Was that Koji?"

"Renge! How long have you been here?" yelled Hajime.

"Long enough to hear all your conversation" she rose from the armchair, came to the man and grabbed him by the collar. "And where is your respect for superiors?"

"Forgive me, Renge-sama", murmured the blonde man looking at her with suspicion. Nobody was able to tell what was going in that woman`s head.

"I`m joking" Renge laughed cheerfully and removed her hand from the collar. "I told you myself to drop honorifics… So how is Koji?"

"Nothing special" growled Hajime with irritation. "What can happen with somebody like him?"

"You don`t like your half-brother, do you?" asked Renge with fake curiosity. She already knew the answer anyway.

"I`ve never considered that reminder of Mother`s humiliation my brother!" roared Hajime.

"And yet you`re from the same bloodline" mocked the woman. "Moreover, he is better than you. You are only arrogant cowardly scoundrel while Koji is real genius. His soul was completely dark, he never showed the mercy to his enemies… Then those two appeared in his life and tried to change him!" Renge`s face suddenly twisted with rage. "That fucking sworn brother and that bitch, his wife! It is their fault that Koji left!"

The woman walked across the room to shake her anger. Hajime was staying away from her.

Then Renge exclaimed with strange smile:

"You know, I was today in Youkai Gakuen and saw Koji`s son!"

"What?" Hajime was surprised. "But I thought we decided to leave Koji`s family alone!"

"Are you dumb or something?" the orange-haired woman looked at him with disdain. "The Great Master said that we need the boy as well… But, you know, somehow I`m disappointed. The boy definitely has some talent but… He is too kind, too pure, too naïve!" her voice suddenly rose. "It`s so irritating! I want to crush his dreams and ideals, to corrupt his soul, to drag him into darkness so much!"

Renge came to the window and pulled it violently open, then leaped outside. Hajime was sure she was going to hunt that night. Renge always used it to ease her anger. The blonde man closed the window and sat down the armchair. He tried not to think about Koji but failed miserably as he remembered his reason for hatred.

_It was many years ago, when Hajime was still twelve. That day his sensei made him fight his younger half-brother. Hajime was sure in his easy victory even if he had no clue of Koji`s skill. His brother was only seven, after all._

_The blonde boy was surprised when he saw Koji. The dark-haired child had blank expression and his eyes held something dangerous. Until that day, Hajime avoided Koji. Moreover, their mother raised them separately. Therefore, the blonde boy had never a chance to know his little brother better. It was his greatest mistake._

_Hajime smirked as he saw that Koji held his dagger loosely. It seemed that he had no experience at all. Therefore, the elder brother attacked first using his best slash. Next moment he was lying on the floor. Koji dodged his slash easily, then tripped him wrenching dagger from Hajime`s hand. Now the dark-haired child stood over his elder brother with both daggers. The fight was over. Or, at least, Hajime thought so._

_However, it wasn`t the end. Sensei still had said nothing. And Koji`s eyes became even scarier than before. Hajime noticed obvious killing intent and forced a fake smirk trying to stop fight:_

"_Hey, little brat, you win this time" he stood up and reached for his dagger. But Koji had no intention to give it back. Instead he stabbed his brother`s shoulder. Hajime stepped back, lost his footing and fell. He wasn`t joking. Koji really decided to kill him._

"_Koji, stop this crap!" yelled the blonde boy with panic. "I beg you, please, stop!" he even grabbed his brother`s leg pleadingly._

"_Enough!" ordered the royal voice. Hajime raised his head and stiffened as he saw Great Master near his sensei. That wasn`t the worse. Hajime`s mother and little Renge stood there as well. _

_Great Master came to Koji and seized daggers from his hands with some effort. Then the man tousled the boy`s hair:_

"_Good job. One day you`ll definitely be on the top"._

_After that, Great Master came to Hajime who was still lying on the floor and kicked him right in face. The boy whined feebly tasting his own blood. It didn`t help as the man continued kicking him viciously. Hajime heard Renge`s nearly insane laugh. She was enjoying his suffering._

_At last, Great Master stopped and left muttering something like "Scum"…_

_Hajime tried to stand up, but failed miserably. Great Master had definitely broke him some ribs and nose. The blonde boy spat some blood and then heard quiet steps as his mother came to him._

"_Mother, I…" Hajime wanted to explain something to the woman, but she had no intention to listen. She kicked her injured son as well and hissed:_

"_Worthless brat! How dare you, my legitimate child, loose to that crip? How dare you to disgrace me before Great Master? You`d better let that abortion kill you!"… _

Hajime shook his head pushing unpleasant memories down. The evil smirk twisted his lips as he thought:

'_I`ll make you suffer as well, Koji'_

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"So what about Hakurei village?" insisted Kurumu. She, Tsukune, Mizore and Yukari were riding the bus. For some reason, Bus Driver constantly chuckled as if he knew something about destination.

"So what about Hakurei village?" repeated succubus with slight irritation.

"Kurumu, you`ve asked this question ten times!" Tsukune smiled and scratched his head.

The girl frowned:

"And you haven`t answered it even once".

The human boy laughed nervously. What could he answer? He didn`t know a thing about Hakurei village as well, besides lied to his friends about source of that information. Now Kurumu was looking at him with suspicion. Tsukune knew that among his friends she had the most penetration. It was nearly impossible to deceive her. The succubus proved it last year when she was the first to suspect Hokuto. Kurumu either had great intuition, or was simply able to read emotions.

"Kyoko didn`t explain me much," Tsukune lied again. He didn`t know the reason for that deception himself. Maybe it was because of that strange orange-haired woman. Tsukune was sure that no one of his friends would trust somebody as suspicious as her. Yet he decided to check that Hakurei village.

"But she had to tell you something!" put in Yukari. It seemed that she and Mizore suspected something as well.

"She told me that somebody saw Dad in Hakurei village," guessed Tsukune. He really hoped it was truth.

The bus stopped.

"Here we are" smirked the Bus Driver.

"Is it a joke?" said Mizore as she looked around and saw only forest. Her friends agreed with her.

"I can`t drive on" shrugged the creepy man. "You`ll have to pass the forest on foot… Oh, by the way, Hakurei village is very unpleasant place".

"Why not scary?" Tsukune tried to joke.

Bus Driver grinned:

"I don`t know about scary, but you unquestionably won`t like this place. Good luck!"

"What does he mean by 'unpleasant place'?" asked Yukari watching as the bus drove away.

"I don`t know" answered Tsukune. It seemed that Bus Driver really had more information about Hakurei village, but, as usual, did not attempt to tell it.

The little group passed the forest in silence. Tsukune was reflecting about the occurrences of the last few days, Yukari was more concerned about strange Bus Driver`s words. Kurumu, on other hand, suspects her Destined One in lie, but still couldn`t get his reasons. And Mizore, as usual, kept her distance and was hiding behind the trees.

At last, they came out of the trees and saw some buildings. Hakurei village seemed to be one of those traditional little settlements with small population. There were very few people on the streets: two women with packages, some children playing football, a smoking man… It was so average, yet something was undeniably off. Something, which gave everybody ominous feeling and even forced Mizore come close to others. And Tsukune soon understood what that was. Locals kept silent: there was neither woman chatter, nor children`s laugh. Moreover, every passer-by, even kids, glared at uninvited visitors with mixture of disdain and suspicion. It was truly very unpleasant place.

Tsukune risked to come to the smoking man who looked not so menacing. It was tall middle-aged person with worn face and shabby clothes.

"What do you want, kid?" barked the man before Tsukune opened his mouth.

"Ehm, I`m looking for one person, his name is Aono Koji… Have you met him?" asked the boy, slightly shocked at the man`s behavior.

"Aono? Never heard" said the local and blew the smoke towards Tsukune`s face.

"Maybe, you`ve seen him" insisted the teen after he cleared his throat. "I have a picture of him".

"Hmm" the man took the photo and looked at it.

Tsukune had no chance to understand what had happened as the next moment he lay still, his face in the dirt and arms twisted behind his back by the smoking man, whose face showed clear rage.

"Tsukune!" shouted three girls and rushed to his aid. They even forgot about the rule not to harm humans.

But each of them was stopped as some of locals block their way.

"Out of my way!" yelled Kurumu angrily, using her charm on the young man who stood before her. It didn`t work.

"What?" gasped succubus in shock.

The young man smirked:

"Neither charm nor illusions will work as long as my eyes are closed. Don`t you know it, succubus?"

"You`ve made a grave mistake!" laughed Kurumu. "How are going to defend if you can`t see me?"

She extended her claws and attacked the local. But that attack failed as well as the young man easily dodged and punched her at gut.

"Kurumu, what are you doing?" cried Yukari waving her wand. Or at least she thought so as another local, a teenage boy, managed to seize her wand some moments before.

"Witches can`t do a thing without their magical items," he stated seriously striking down the girl.

"It seems you`re alone now," chuckled the local woman looking at Mizore.

"I won`t be handle quiet easily, you know," answered lavender-haired girl. "I`m not going to underestimate you, like those two".

She summoned her ice claws and threw some ice shards to the woman.

"Your ice is surely the largest problem," the female local leaped back. "But don`t get too cocky, yuki onna. Everybody has their own weaknesses!" she shouted launching something at her rival.

Mizore dodged easily and prepared another attack when something exploded behind her. Next moment she was surrounded by the ring of flame.

"Fire?" she asked in disbelief. How could those people know about that weakness of her race?

"Yeah, the heat is your grave enemy," said the woman grimly. Mizore wanted to fight back, but the heat weakened her drastically and she fell on the ground, losing consciousness.

All the time, while the girls were fighting locals, Tsukune struggled to get free from the grip, but the local holding him had nearly inhuman strength. At last, the teen managed to push the local away from him and rushed to unconscious Mizore. He didn`t know about her weakness against the heat, yet it was obvious that she couldn`t stay at that flame ring.

Tsukune took the snow girl bridal style and jumped out of the fire. He greeted his teeth as the locals surrounded him. The teen wasn`t sure that he was able to beat all of them, especially now, when he needed to protect unconscious Mizore, Kurumu and Yukari. However, there was no other option as he would never leave the girls and save his own neck. Therefore, Tsukune laid Mizore on the ground and took the battle stance.

"What are you doing here, Tora, Sayoko, Genta?" yelled angry female voice. Everybody turned around and saw a very irritated old woman in dark kimono…

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**Author notes: Cliffhanger… Actually, I planned cliffhanger here even before I wrote first chapter. Another matter, that I never thought that I would extend this story so much. Anyway, I at last managed to finish introduction part. So, till the next time. **


	8. Chapter 8

_**Hello, everybody! I haven't updated for a while. Again… Really, I begin to think that my teachers are either sadists or they simply hate me. Why else did they suddenly give me that unbelievable task, which was nearly impossible to finish in a week? At least, I was praised, when I finished that crazy report…**_

_**Some answers to reviews:**_

_**To tsukinopen: Thank you for your response!**_

_**To Lord Destroyer: I got the name Hakurei from my friend and was wondering where did he get it from as he didn't know Japanese at all… Last time I read Inuyasha three years ago, so I didn't remember all the plot.**_

_**To Rockman57: I intentionally made Dalila looking old, even if I knew that vampires in RV universe never grow old. It will be explained in latter chapters**_

_**To Guest: Tsukune will get power-up, but for some reason I don't like instant godlike power-ups. I can understand them in latter part of story, but not in the beginning.**_

_**To I'MNOTCRAZY1: Thank you for noting the grave accent. You see, when I'm typing in my native language the key for grave accent is used for apostrophe. So it's become a habit. I have a bad eyesight as well, which caused that I haven't noticed that I used wrong key.**_

_**About much talking during the fights… I know, I fell a victim to typical shounen pattern. I think I must stop to read shounen for a while. Next time, I'll try to avoid such a mistake.**_

_**To flynnstone628: Thank you very much! **_

Chapter 7: Dark legacy

When the old lady yelled on the locals, they stopped immediately, but no one of them showed any regret. Moreover, they wasn't happy at all after she ordered them to help girls. By that time Kurumu came to her senses and was trying to understand what was going on. Tsukune helped her to her feet, and then took Mizore bridal style again. The petite succubus was going to carry Yukari, but one of the locals pushed her away rudely and took the little witch himself. The old lady told Tsukune and Kurumu to follow her. The local who carried Yukari was walking behind them, cursing through his teeth. At last, they entered one of the houses.

Tsukune still couldn't get how he managed to end up in such a situation. First, his calm and kind father left the family all of sudden. Then the strange orange-haired woman instead of telling Aono Koji's whereabouts sent him to some odd village. Moreover, the locals' reaction wasn`t the most pleasant. And now the teenager was sitting inside one of the houses, drinking tea offered to him by old lady in kimono. By the way, that woman was sitting opposite him now, her piercing gaze carefully studying his face. Beside Tsukune was very irritated Kurumu. who still was the only one to regain her consciousness. Mizore and Yukari were sleeping in the next room.

The teenager looked around noting some traditional paintings with blooming sakura and cranes, as well as some katanas on the stand. The only things, which seemed out of place in that traditional room, were numerous photos on the opposite wall.

Tsukune sighed. He had to begin the conversation even if he had no clue what to say. Otherwise, he would be face Kurumu's anger. She kept silent all that time, but she unquestionably was eager to hear some explanation from him.

"What's going here?" asked Tsukune as he hadn't better idea.

The old woman chuckled:

"Wouldn't it be more polite to introduce yourself at first?"

"I'm Aono Tsukune. And this is Kurono Kurumu."

"Pleased to meet you Aono-kun, Kurono-chan. I'm the elder of Hakurei village, Hakurei Ayaka," the old woman bowed politely.

Kurumu lost her patience:

"What's up with all these unnecessary manners? Can't you simply explain us why we were attacked?"

"Don't tell me that Mikogami's little students didn't know where they came," smiled the elder. "Besides, I believe, you provoked my people yourself".

The teenagers looked at her with lack of understanding.

"How do you know about the Headmaster?" Tsukune became suspicious.

"We didn't provoke anybody!" yelled Kurumu angrily.

"I see," sighed Ayaka. "You really don't understand a thing. Let's make a deal. I'll answer all your questions, but you as well will tell me everything".

"OK" nodded Tsukune. "So what is this village?"

"It's simply the place inhabited by my family. The only home for my cursed kin," suddenly old woman`s gaze became distant and extremely sad.

"I don't get it," said Kurumu with confusion. "So everybody here is your relative?"

"Kind of" smiled Ayaka, but her eyes stayed gloomy. "Even if we are not blood related, we are still bonded by our souls. Everybody here holds a deep hatred for monsters. All of us either lost loved ones because of monsters or were tortured by them. Revenge is all we're living for. Don't you think, that we are miserable beings?"

"Who are you?" asked Tsukune. He already had a suggestion as he suddenly remembered the copybook of Y. K.

_Monster hunters are strong and terrifying and still they`re pitiful beings with no real place in this world. Forever alone, forever misunderstood by humans, forever hated by youkai…_

Those words once again flashed in the teenager's mind.

"You don't know even that, do you?" sighed the elder. "I thought, it's obvious that this is a village of monster hunters".

"What?" exclaimed Kurumu in shock. "I was sure, monster hunters is one of children's fairy-tales! My mother frightened me with such stories when I was little!"

At this exclamation, Ayaka burst into a loud laugh:

"Fairy-tale? Monster hunters? Are you joking? Well, I guess, after all, we have a truce agreement with Great Monster Council. No wonder, that there are children like you, Kurono-chan, after thirty years of peace. Maybe, it is better, when youngsters have no clue about the darkest pages of history".

"What do you mean by 'truce'? I've never heard about war between monsters and humans," said Tsukune and nearly immediately understood, how childish and irrational it sounded. Last year he didn't even believe in youkai. How could he know about their history?

The old woman gave him strange, unreadable look, but still answered his question:

"Monster hunters were in war with youkai for many millennia. After all, it was the only meaning for our existence. Of course, at first, we fought to protect human race, but soon we began simply killed monsters to satisfy our bloodlust… That time, monster hunters had lost their right to be called 'humans'. We are nothing better than violent, unreasonable beasts now".

"Isn't this too much?" Kurumu frowned. "For some reason, your self-accusation sounds false to me. If you don't want to kill, then don't kill. Nobody forces you to be – how did you say - 'violent, unreasonable beasts'!"

Ayaka stayed silent for a moment, her face darkened. Then she forced weak smile:

"Alas, you're wrong. We're forced to be murderers by our own blood".

"Oh, yeah!" Kurumu said sarcastically. "You're only poor lambs bonded by dark legacy! OK, I'll try to believe your statement, but can you explain me only one thing: if you're so innocent, what was the reason for all those terrifying stories about monster hunters? Even if a tenth part of them is true, you have no right to make an excuse!"

For some reason succubus girl was really angry. Tsukune looked at her with some confusion. His friend had to know something horrible about monster hunters, however the teenager himself had no idea, what caused that anger.

"I've never said that monster hunters are innocent souls," Ayaka's eyes blazed with sudden hatred. "We continue to kill you, youkai, when we have a possibility, because we HATE you. We have a right to have this feeling. And, of course, I have killed hundreds of monsters in my live. Some of them were even younger than you!"

Tsukune instantly sprang on to his feet as he felt a killing intent. The old woman seemed harmless before, but that was only illusion. The teenager clearly understood that the elder of Hakurei village would feel no doubt to attack him or Kurumu if it was necessary.

"Good reflexes," smirked Ayaka. "Don't worry, I'm not going to attack any of you. What a shame, that I let my emotions to overcome me. I deeply apologize for that outburst… By the way, Kurono-chan, there is really something like dark legacy of monster hunters. Wasn't you surprised at my people abilities? How could they tell that you were monsters?"

"Now, when you've said it… The man, who was holding me, had quite a strength… I mean, I'm not so strong, but I'm definitely stronger than some human," murmured Tsukune and nearly instantly froze. Had he really said that? It sounded like he didn't considered himself a part of human race anymore. Was he already adjusted to idea of losing humanity so much?

'_No way!' _thought Tsukune with fear. _'I'm not a monster. I'm human'._

'_Yeah, human… What a joke! Human has no need in some device to be in right mind,' _whispered a cold, composed voice in his head. Tsukune knew that it was right. It couldn't be otherwise: after all, that thought belonged to him as well.

Everybody has the dark side, and Aono Tsukune wasn't the exception. He remembered having violent, evil thoughts as long as he lived. As the time passed, the teenager learned to keep them under control, so no one even guessed that Tsukune could be really cruel and merciless. However, even under control, the dark side was still there, and now it was really enjoying Tsukune's situation. That part of him was even glad to lose humanity and gain the great strength in cost of his mind. That fact scared Tsukune more than anything else did.

"Those guys knew too much," agreed Kurumu, not noticing that Tsukune paled for a moment. "Moreover, it looked like they were aware, how and when we would attack".

"They really were," nodded the old woman. "As we are able to sense youki and our reflexes are far more sharper than those of average human. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to oppose youkai. But Tora – the man who held Aono-kun – is strong himself. There is no one like him here".

"I've always thought that humans can't sense youki, and now you tell me, that I'm wrong," Kurumu said incredulously.

"Well, I think I've expressed it wrongly… Monster hunter is not able to sense youki the same way that actual youkai is…" Ayaka looked at the ceiling for a while trying to find appropriate explanation. "It's more like inner sight, ability to distinguish humans and monsters in disguise. If it is well-developed, one can surely tell much more after only one glance".

"Still, it's hard to believe," insisted Kurumu. "Why did only monster hunters develop such a useful ability?"

The elder didn't answer right away. She was sipping her tea for some time. It really seemed like she seriously doubted, if she had to answer that question.

"Well, I've promised you to tell everything… After all, most of monsters know about monster hunters and their abilities… If I don't explain everything, you'll simply ask Mikogami… There is no real problem here," she sighed. "It's the well-known fact, that we hadn't developed those abilities ourselves. If you don't mind, I'll tell you an old story".

"We don't mind at all!" Tsukune assured her hastily. In truth, he hadn't heard the whole conversation between Kurumu and old woman because of his thoughts, and now was trying to cover that fact.

"Millennia ago," started Ayaka, closing her eyes, "youkai considered themselves gods and did everything they wished. Weak and terrified human race could do nothing with it. Great massacres were extremely frequent during those times. Humans was treated worse than livestock. However, one day the situation changed completely. The day, when human managed to kill monster. Later, that action was shown as a great deed, but, in truth, it was simple coincidence. The 'hero' was only a scared young boy, who accidently took a stake for defense, and his rival was stupid enough to drive hard into it, impaling himself through the chest. But the fact remains, that the monster was defeated. Don't you think, it gave much hope to humanity? The monsters weren't invisible; it was possible to oppose them".

"I get your point, but what does it have with monster hunters?" Kurumu frowned. She didn't like old woman at all, besides, she still was angry because of that attack earlier.

"You're really impatient, Kurono-chan. I was going to explain it, when you interrupted me," chuckled the elder. "So, people had believed, that they could protect themselves. But not everybody agreed with only defense. There was bunch of humans, who suffered from monster's attacks and desired revenge. They became first monster hunters. Do you think, they were successful from the start? No, it was the exact opposite. Most of them couldn't do a thing and very shortly were dead. That was until monster hunters formed fateful alliance with one certain race…"

"Certain race?" Tsukune said with surprise.

"Yeah, there is one certain race, which is rejected both by humans and youkai, so-called 'boarder race'," nodded Ayaka.

"You mean, witches and warlocks?" sniffed Kurumu scornfully. "Don't even try to deceive us! This is nonsense! Even little children know that witches are on the same side as monsters!"

"I agree with Kurumu," added Tsukune. "As I know, witches hate humans for polluting and destroying the environment".

The old woman suddenly laughed:

"What naïve beliefs you have! No wonder, none of you is born in boarder race family. Maybe, your little witch friend knows much more, but I'm sure that she avoided this topic".

"No, Yukari…" began Tsukune, but suddenly stopped as he realized that the elder was right. Surely, Yukari had told him much about her family and homeland, but she actually never said anything about witches' traditions or history. She had never told him about discrimination of boarder race. Actually, he heard about it from Kurumu. And Ruby was the same. She eagerly talked with her friends about her late master, about her childhood and even about her parents, but not about witches' community.

"Your expression shows me, that you've realized it yourself, Aono-kun," said Ayaka. "But don't blame your little friend. That topic is great taboo among the witches and warlocks only because they as well have their pride."

"What do you mean?" sniffed Kurumu. Even if she considered Yukari annoying brat, she deeply cared about her and couldn't let the elder of Hakurei village speak ill of her.

"I assume, that Aono-kun has much better knowledge of human society, than you, Kurono-chan, so I'd better ask him… Have you ever read human fairy-tales or legends?"

"Of course," answered Tsukune, slightly offended. He finally realized, that the old woman didn't consider him human at all.

"Good. It will be easier for me to explain…" Ayaka smiled. "There are a bunch of bad witches in these stories… But not every person, who is able to use the magic, is a villain…"

Kurumu looked confused, but Tsukune understood immediately, what the elder meant:

"There are also wizards and fairy godmothers, who always help the hero… So, they are…"

"From boarder race as well," finished the old woman. "The same as witches and warlocks, only sided with humans instead of monsters… You see, there is a conflict with deep roots. The boarder race is hated by the both sides, so it deliberately tries to find its place. But what is witch? Monster with human body or human with supernatural power? Those two opinions caused the split in witches' community: half of them decided to live as youkai, while other tried to blend in human society. Of course, each of them considers their opponents traitors and denies the fact, that they're actually the same".

Kurumu looked at the elder suspiciously:

"For some reason, I can't trust you, even if I don't feel that you're trying to deceive us… You know, you change topic pretty easily as if you're going to avoid inappropriate questions. You were telling us about monster hunters' history, and then suddenly switched to witches and their conflicts".

"I simply couldn't help explaining, how we managed to form alliance with wizards," Ayaka shrugged. "Otherwise, you would never understand the whole situation".

"OK, it can be possible," murmured Kurumu. "But why do you tell us everything as if it is a well-known fact?"

"Because it_**is**_ a well-known fact," chuckled the old woman. "When I was young, every monster was able to tell you anything about monster hunters. It is not as if the knowledge can change anything… I'll continue my explanation, if you don't mind. Therefore, wizards formed alliance with monster hunters. No need to tell, that they were greatly disappointed with our weakness. However, they knew the way to get rid of it. After all, there were many great magicians among our allies. Together they had cast a great spell on monster hunters and their bloodline, giving them inner sight and better reflexes, as well as dreadful violence, hatred and mercilessness for monsters".

"Mercilessness? But why?" asked Tsukune with surprise.

"Because most of failures were caused by doubts. Some monsters can be really charming or deceitful, and it is really hard for normal human to kill somebody… However, if nothing can stop monster hunter…" Ayaka sighed, never finishing the phrase. "It is really horrible curse. I realized it, when I saw monster hunter, who had lost lower half of body, yet still tried to fight, even standing on the brink of death. Eventually every one of us reaches his limit and can't stop their hatred anymore. While our reason and all other emotions are disappearing, we continue to fight until we meet our death. This is fate of any monster hunter. Well, willpower can slow down the process, but one day darkness totally consumes everybody's soul".

"Except yours," sneered Kurumu.

"Kurumu, it's rude," whispered Tsukune.

"You're wrong, Kurono-chan. I'm like any other monster hunter, well, maybe with much more willpower. Anyway, I'll reach my limit sooner than you think".

Tsukune looked into the old woman's eyes and flinched as he understood what she meant. Her eyes were cold, merciless, full of hatred, even if her face showed nothing of it. The teenager had never seen such glare before, neither among humans, nor among monsters.

"Sometimes, I wonder for what reason I have controlled this darkness for such a long time… All my friends succumbed to hatred…" Ayaka seemed to look beyond what everyone else could see. "And I can understand them… A mother, whose only child was murdered in front of her… A boy, who lost entire family in few minutes… A teenager, who witnesses inhuman tortures of his first love… Instead of useless grief there was the thirst for revenge… They made monsters suffer to stifle their own pain".

The silence stretched out thin. Tsukune was somehow terrified of what he had heard. What connection had his father with Hakurei village and monster hunters? He was prayed that it was a mistake or simple coincidence, but his inner voice was whispering to him not to deny the truth.

Kurumu was trying to get what was going there. She still hadn't understood everything, but she was sure that Aono Koji had some connections with that place. The succubus girl was going to ask her Destined one something, but then she saw his face and didn't dare question him. Even if the busty girl was considered silly among her friends, she was much more sensitive than they were.

The old Ayaka simply observed two teenagers. It was impossible to guess what she was thinking. At last, she broke the silence:

"I believe I've told you enough to explain everything. Have you any other questions?"

"No…" murmured Tsukune, trying to banish all unpleasant thoughts to the darkest corner of his mind.

"I have!" interrupted Kurumu. "You haven't told us, how do you know about the Headmaster. Don't you think it's suspicious?"

"A group of monsters came here in broad daylight," chuckled Ayaka. "Different monster races usually despise each other. If you were together, it meant that you were from some organization, uniting more than one race. You hadn't tried to sneak here at night, so you didn't plan to attack. You're pretty young as well. Therefore, I assumed that you're the students from Youkai Gakuen. Now your turn to answer my questions… What does Mikogami want?"

"What do you mean?" said Tsukune.

"Mikogami has sent you here, hasn't he? So what does that old fox want?" repeated the elder.

"The Headmaster hasn't sent us here. We've come on our own will," answered Kurumu.

"I'm looking for one person. The Headmaster simply helped us to get here," added Tsukune.

The old woman smirked:

"So, Mikogami helped you to get to the Hakurei and didn't even warn you… No wonder, it's so like him. I'm pretty sure, that he foresaw my interference, but still you risked greatly… Sometimes, I really feel sorry for his pawns…"

"Pawns?" yelled Kurumu angrily.

"It doesn't matter, anyhow," continued Ayaka, totally ignoring the girl's yell. "Who are you looking for?"

"His name is Aono Koji," answered Tsukune.

"_Aono?"_ chuckled the old woman. It seemed she was really curious, but she never asked any question. "Everybody here has the last name Hakurei. It is against rules to change it," added she, predicting next question.

"He could stay here for a while," guessed Kurumu. "Tsukune, show her that photo!"

The elder reached for the photo, bending her head to puzzle over it. She didn't tell a thing while studying it intently. An ominous quiet filled the room and it was the worst. It would be much better, if Ayaka said something. Instead Tsukune couldn't help making the most ridiculous suggestions. He even almost believed that his father visited Hakurei village with his lover and maybe had some conflict with locals… Well, anything was better, than his father being monster hunter.

At last, the old woman stated firmly:

"This man is not from Hakurei village".

Tsukune sighed with relief. It turned out to be too early, as Ayaka continued:

"Yet I have no right to say, that I don't know him… When you thought it over, his name was really Koji. I took no notice, because it's incredibly common name. Still, I've never heard of somebody with last name Aono".

"Koji-san took his wife's family name after the marriage," explained Kurumu. She noticed, that Tsukune hesitated to ask anything, so she asked instead:

"Has he any connections with your village or not?"

"It's hard to answer…" Ayaka suddenly rose to her feet and went to the wall with photos. "Look here! Don't you think they resemble each other?"

Tsukune came round to the elder, followed by Kurumu, and looked at the photo, at which the old woman pointed. It was a picture of middle-aged man with quite average face and short dark hair. A diagonal scar ran across his cheek. It was the only difference between that man and Koji. Well, maybe, except nearly insane glare and fiendish grin. Tsukune shuddered: it was really horrifying to see father's face with such expression. It didn't even matter that that person wasn't his dad.

"Who is this?" asked the teenager in a ghost of a voice. His throat became so dry that he could scarcely speak. "Who is this?" he repeated, now much louder.

"Hakurei Koichi. We were adopted by the same man, so he was kind of my elder brother," answered Ayaka grimly. "I also believe that he was Koji's father".

"You've said, Koji-san is not from Hakurei village!" yelled Kurumu furiously as she saw Tsukune's condition. He simply stared on the wall without any emotion.

"I haven't lied you," said the elder. "Koji has never lived here. Moreover, his last name was definitely not Hakurei…" she suddenly stopped, meeting Tsukune`s gaze. Her eyes for some reason became sad and even sympathetic. Ayaka sighed: "I don't know much about Koji, but, it seems, you know even less, Aono-kun. I can tell you everything, but… Are you really sure, that you want to live with this knowledge? You still can return home and pretend that you've never visit this place".

For a moment Tsukune was really eager to leave without answers. Then she remembered his mother, her tears and despair, and his own determination to find his father. It would be too easy to run away. The teenager decided long ago not to run from hardships. Wasn't that the reason, why he still stayed in Youkai Gakuen?

"I want to know the truth," stated the boy with determination. "Even if regret later".

The elder sighed and walked through room, then returned to the wall with photos and stopped:

"There was a time when neither of us knew about Koji… You know, my brother Koichi wasn't a person to care about anybody. In truth, he wasn't interested in anything except fighting with monsters. I still can't imagine woman who was able to fall in love with him, as he was much worse than actual monster. Can you imagine our shock when one day a seven-years-old child came here, claiming that he was Koichi's son. We had no doubts about it, as that boy, named Koji, held striking resemblance to my brother. The child totally ignored all our questions, insisting on meeting with his dad. So I don't know about his mother or his real last name. As for Koichi, he showed no real interest in his son, but agreed to speak with him in private. Of course, we left them…"

Ayaka closed her eyes and continued:

"They wasn't alone even for minute, when we heard nearly inhuman roar. We burst in only to see that Koichi was holding a dagger, trying to stab the boy. It seemed that he totally lost his mind. And Koji was simply sitting there with a deep cut on his cheek. Two of my friends pinned Koichi in moments and threw away the dagger. We had never known what had happened there: Koichi refused to answer any questions, so he was locked for everybody's safe, and Koji had disappeared during that confusion.

I couldn't understand what was going on, and then my brother ran away, killing two of his fellows in process. The previous elder told us, that Koichi lost his mind. Still I was worried as I didn't know where he went… Three weeks later we received his corpse. Beheaded and cut to pieces. So we assumed, that Koichi had unthinkingly attacked some monsters' lair. I think, it was vampire mansion near Hinowa town…"

She suddenly smiled as she noticed that Tsukune slightly paled and Kurumu was fighting the wave of nausea.

"Disgusting? Nevertheless, that was a common death of monster hunter. Nothing special," chuckled Ayaka, but suddenly grew serious. "Next time I met Koji three years later. That year we made truce agreement with Great Monster Council. According to its conditions we still had right to kill monsters who attacked humans, but had to leave in peace those who desired coexistence. Yet somebody broke the rules. The whole monster families blending in human society were massacred. Of course, Great Monster Council suspected monster hunters. After all, some clans opposed the truce agreement…"

"What clans? Aren't you only one here?" interrupted Kurumu.

"Are you joking?" laughed the old woman bitterly. "There are hundreds of monster hunters' clans all over the world. Moreover, Hakurei clan is not even among most influential in Japan… Nevertheless, the most of murders were committed on our territory as if somebody was trying to destroy our reputation. No need to tell, that we began our own investigation, but without any real results. And then I managed to meet the mysterious murderer.

That was a moonless night. I arrived in the victim's house only to witness the same massacre as ever. The owner, his wife and children – everybody was already dead. Yet there was a living being as well, only I didn't know it. I tried to turn on the light, but it didn't worked, so I used the candle. And then I noticed him. All that time he stood there, observing me with his emotionless eyes. It was a boy of nearly ten, whose clothes became red of blood. The most shocking thing was that I recognized him: it was Koji, the same child who came to our village three years ago. I know that I had to do something, yet we merely stood there looking into each other eyes. I didn't know how much time passed, a minute or maybe much more, but he went past me and left, while I didn't dare to stop him…"

"But why?" whispered Tsukune.

"I was afraid… I was simply afraid… Heck, I was afraid for the first time in my whole live!" Ayaka looked at one of the traditional paintings and crossed the room one more time. "I had met the scariest monster, yet was horrified by the _**human**_ child. I wasn't afraid of his strength or skill, as I was pretty sure that he couldn't do a thing against me that time… No, it was his stare that scared me – empty as an abyssal pit and at the same time full of hatred for the whole world…"

The old woman stayed silent for some moments, then continued:

"He became quite famous soon enough. They nicknamed him Phantom, as nobody could said where he came from and where disappeared. Then there was some years of silence. I even thought that he met the same fate as any other monster hunter. Koji reappeared again in the age of nineteen, but now for some reason he killed only monsters who opposed the idea of coexistence. One of my men managed to met them, they fought each other, and my man returned seriously injured. By the way, you've met him… I suppose, you showed him Koji's photo, didn't you? As Tora is the only one here, who holds a personal grudge against him… Anyway, seventeen years ago Koji disappeared for the second time…"

"I was born seventeen years ago," murmured Tsukune to himself hardly audible.

"And now we have rumors that Phantom is back. There were some mysterious murders lately," finished the elder walked round the room again and stopped near the photos. Everybody kept silent. Tsukune just didn't know what to say. Everything he knew about his father was contrary to all that he had heard from Ayaka. Was she trying to deceive him? Or was it Koji, who lied his son for the whole life?

Kurumu was really uncomfortable. It wasn't her business at all, yet she had heard more than enough. Had she any right to listen to that story? Did her Destined one want her to hear it?

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Ruby was extremely tired. The Headmaster told her to find, how the stranger managed to sneak at the Youkai Gakuen, but she still had no clues. Moreover, she was eager to follow Tsukune and the girls to the Hakurei village. Instead the witch was forced to check the barrier.

Now she was going to the Headmaster's office for report. Some male students whistled as she was passing by. In truth, Ruby was quite popular among boys, especially those, who liked more mature women. And it wasn't strange: the witch was gorgeous and everybody admitted it. Unfortunately for her fans, Ruby liked Tsukune, which gave poor human teenager even more haters.

The Headmaster was sitting in his office, checking some documents. He didn't even look up, when Ruby came in.

"Are there any results?" he simply asked his assistant.

"Alas, no," sighed Ruby. "The barrier is intact and I haven't seen any other transdimentional passage".

"What about teleportation?" guessed Mikogami. "Are there any traces of magic use?"

"I haven't checked!" gasped the witch. "I'll check it immediately!"

The Exorcist chuckled:

"Have some rest. You can check it tomorrow… After all, we are tend to make the most mistakes, when we are tired".

Ruby bowed and withdrew. The Headmaster returned to his papers. They were mostly reports from his people. They wasn't optimistic at all. Vampires were gathering forces in the England. Two werewolf's clans declared each other war in Hungary. There was great massacre in Africa, as well as some commotion in China. Moreover, there were rumors about mysterious antihuman organization, named Fairy Tale, which became pretty popular, especially among young youkai.

Mikogami looked at the next report and suddenly smirked.

_I've investigated the mysterious murders, which happened lately. I still have no proof, but I think that Phantom is involved._

'It seems that our fragile peace really going to end soon,' thought the Exorcist as he remembered one certain conversation more than year ago.

_That day was simply boring. There was no reports, no important papers. Even students for some reason were quiet. Mikogami even played a chess party with himself._

_A man in black clothes looked inside the office:_

"_Mikogami-sama, there is a visitor here… He wants to see you"._

"_Some student?" the Headmaster moved the chessboard aside._

_The man shook his head:_

"_No, he isn't a student. It is middle-aged man. He said, his name is Aono Koji"._

"_Never heard of him," said the Headmaster. "Let him in!"_

_The man disappeared. Mikogami was wondering what kind of person was the visitor. Koji was quit a common name, he personally knew some man with such name. Could it be somebody of them? No way. Half of them totally ignored the Headmaster, while others hated him greatly. There was also one man, who tried to avoid the Exorcist at any cost._

_The door opened widely and middle-aged man with average appearance stepped in. Mikogami was really surprised, but he concealed his surprise with usual creepy grin. He knew that man, moreover, it was that Koji, who had always avoided him. However, the Dark Lord was sure that last time the man's last name wasn't Aono._

"_What a rare occurrence to see you here on your own will, __**Aono **__Koji-san" Mikogami smirked. "What has brought you here?"_

_Koji frowned. It seemed he hadn't change at all and still considered Mikogami suspicious rascal._

"_I have a request," the man stated grimly._

"_It is really interesting, Aono-san," chuckled the Headmaster. "For you, who never trust me, to seek my help? So what do you want?"_

"_I want you to enroll my son in Youkai Gakuen," answered Koji._

_Mikogami looked at him attentively:_

"_I don't think I have a right to do so"._

"_Don't try to deceive me," Aono laughed bitterly. "I'm well aware that you enroll even students, who aren't approved by Great Monster Council…"_

"_You've grown quite cocky, Aono-san," smirked the Exorcist. "Who would think that one day you would try to demand something from me… Then, it seems that my assistance had quite a big mouth. Well, I don't have problems with certain kind of students. But I am still not sure, if it wise to enroll here the son of infamous murderer Phantom. There are already at least five deaths here every year, and we don't need here a bloodbath". _

"_No need to worry," assured Koji. "Tsukune isn't like me at all. Besides, he even doesn't know about monsters' existence"._

"_Your reasons are still incomprehensible. I simply can't get why do you want your son studying here, especially if he know nothing about monsters"._

"_Maybe, because he need to learn about coexistence?" shrugged Koji._

_Suddenly the Exorcist burst out laughing:_

"_Brilliant! To hear something like that from you… And I thought that you didn't believe in idea of coexistence between different races"._

"_I still don't believe in this foolish idea," frowned Aono. "Yet I've never thought I was right. This is my answer. But Tsukune is different, so I'm sure he'll find different answer as well"._

"_You still haven't told me your real reason," Mikogami looked at the man attentively._

"_I was never able to deceive you," chuckled Koji. "One day your fragile peaceful system will collapse. That day I'll be forced to return to my job. I simply want my only child to be under trustworthy protection… You're real bastard, but, at least, you're really smart to become a victor in every situation"._

_The Exorcist smirked as well and suddenly threw some papers to the floor. Koji automatically picked one of them and tried to return it, but Headmaster stopped him:_

"_Keep it for yourself. After all, you wanted this application"._

"_What?" Koji looked really confused._

"_I have no right to give this to you, but you've seen it as well: I haven't given it to you. I've dropped the application, and you've picked it up…" Mikogami smiled evilly._

_The man sighed:_

"_Now, I'm pretty sure, that you're real devil here"._

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_**A/N: The longest chapter so far. As well as chapter without Moka. Now I hate myself. Nothing special this time. The story simply reached a revelation part. Some of revelations will be quite obvious, while other will be quite unpredictable. Anyway I left some hints in previous chapters.**_

_**Btw, I'm planning to make it two or three part story with "Secrets of Past" as first part. **_


End file.
